Gods, Demons and Fallen Angels
by LZW
Summary: What if when Bell first visited the dungeon, something strange happened and he found out that things were not always as they seemed? How will the event affect how the story unfolds? Follow Bell as truth of his parents and the world sets him on a lifechanging quest, to reach the bottom of the dungeon. Dark Bell. OP Bell. Completed. Eventual Season Two. Cover Art By: FixelCat
1. Chapter 1: Bell Cranel

A/N: I felt that while Bell was really badass, he was also pretty much a scaredy cat when it comes to things bigger and stronger than him, I aim to fix that in this Fic. This is pretty much me twisting Bell into Kirito at his worst. Those of you that have read my Absolute Duo Fic can expect the same here so be warned.

I am aware that Bell lived in a village in the past with his grandfather but here he has always been in Orario. I don't know much more so bare with me. I base some of my information off Wikipedia and other sites so I apologize in advance if I get something wrong. This story also goes on a far different path from the Anime. For more information see the author's note at the bottom.

* * *

_A long, long time ago, Gods came down to this world, the world of us, their children, seeking excitement. They then decided that they would live here with us forever in the lower world. They decided to seal their divine power and enjoy life with all the hardships and inconvenience that it entailed. They are only able to offer us one thing, the power to fight monsters which was called their blessing. The children given this power became their servants, their Familia._

_Or at least, that is the story we were told..._

* * *

His parents died while he was young and without any relatives to take care of him, he was orphaned. Without a way to pay the rent, the landlord kicked him off the property. He lived on the streets and had to learn to fend for myself, he didn't have friends either because the other kids would shun him as a dirty peasant. Begging didn't work so Bell had to live smart and he learned that stealing from the stalls only caused more problems than it was worth. It was then that he looked to other alternatives, he became a cutpurse, stealing the Valis off unsuspecting citizens.

A few months back, when Bell was still on the road begging for scraps, he had stupidly trusted a man that tried to sell him a map to a secret treasure trove for five hundred Valis. Bell saved up the amount for months before he went searching for the man and bought the map. Once he got the map, Bell followed the instructions as best as he could and ended up in a shallow lake with no signs of civilization in sight.

He started digging, but the water kept flooding in. He kept on diving and digging, clinging onto the hope that his suffering would end once he found the treasure. Bell eventually hit bedrock and his heart sank. He knew that he had reached the bottom and questioned where the treasure was. He dashed back to Orario to find the man, when he finally found him, the man was speaking to another person with the exact same map in hand.

Bell put two and two together and he realized he had been tricked. His stomach rumbled as it longed for food that it would not receive. He was angry, he had been cheated of what little money he had left. He was angry at the man and himself for believing him. The city suddenly looked more gloom, after being scammed, Bell now saw the darkness within the city. He lost what remained of his childish naivety as he remembered the painful grumbling of his stomach on those cold nights where he fasted to save up for the map.

He started to watch as people got pickpocketed, it was subtle and quick, but the man would bump into them for a moment, slip his hand into their pocket while they still had the sensation of being bumped and pull out whatever valuables he could grab. Bell started to practice it with a dummy and train his speed. He put in different shaped rocks to simulate coins or gems, with the occasional dirt ball to simulate garbage not worth stealing.

Bell continued to train and watch, but found it difficult to execute, so he instead found an old kitchen knife from the trash and grinded it against a rock until it was sharp. He had observed that people often had a pouch hanging from their belts which was where they stored their Valis for convenience. Bell found after a few attempts on drunks, he found that the knife was too bulky to be easily concealed and instead found a piece of metal

Bell grinded the metal into an icicle shape and used it as a shiv. Further testing proved its versatility as it slid easily in and out of Bell's hand. He trained with drunks until he was confident in his skills and moved on to trying it on the street. His first target was a busy door to door salesman. He walked past him as he was peddling his wares and slit the thread holding the pouch to the belt. The pouch fell and Bell quickly caught it with one hand and sheathed the shiv with the other.

He continued walking and acting natural with the pouch in his pocket, slipping into an alley under the cover of the crowd where he started to head home. Back in his small hideout, Bell opened the pouch up and was greeted by a bounty of Valis, the salesman had just begun his rounds so it wasn't much, but it was a decent amount. He counted five hundred Valis and jumped for joy, the amount would feed him for a good number of days.

Bell continued his stealing spree, getting better and better. He eventually got to a point where he could afford to eat at stalls and restaurants. He got new clothes from a clothier with the money he saved up and worked diligently to keep it clean.

Bell also had to learn to fight with a dagger because of the thieves in the city. He wasn't the one getting robbed however, no, he was the one robbing the thieves. Every so often, he would catch a thief in the act while he was stealing and follow them back to their hideout. The thieves usually kept their bounty on them and Bell stalked them till they slept, silently slitting their throats and taking their Valis.

Every so often one of the attempts would go wrong and Bell would be forced to fight, which is why he trained himself in combat, the thieves were usually unaccustomed to battle and could be easily outmatched by someone who actually trained. He had to be quick witted as a thief which gave him an edge in battle because he could utilize that to quickly know which counter to use on the enemy.

Bell was no idiot and never stole from Adventurers, he knew how strong they were, but got lucky and looted some magic stones off the thieves he killed who were stupid enough to try. He traded them in at the Guild and got big payouts from them. He was amazed by the amount of Valis just one tiny fragment was worth and pushed himself even harder, training until he could steal heavier loads with extreme precision and speed.

When he became confident he was good enough to do it, Bell started to stalk the Adventurers that frequented the dungeon. Most of them went to the Guild and traded the stones in before they headed to the bar to drink till the dawn, those were usually looted by the bar maidens already though, making them not worth the effort. He continued watching and eventually he found one that never drank too heavily because he cashed his stones in at the end of the day. Bell followed the man closely in the alley, with his senses dulled, the Adventurer could not detect Bell as he swiped the pouch of magic stones. He ran off with all his might in fear that he was detected at the last minute, not daring to look back.

When he was a good distance away, Bell listened for footsteps and heard none. He breathed a sigh of relief as he opened the pouch and found a litter of magic stones yet to be traded in, the Adventurer had been a low level one and had not farmed up much, but to him, it was a lot. Bell quickly ran to his hideout in the church basement and spread out his stones on a slab of rock.

The drawers in the Guild had weights in them that automatically told the banker the weight of the crystals and thus how much to payout. Magic stones could be traded in at ten Valis a gram, meaning that a bag of crystals at around two hundred grams would be worth two thousand Valis. This excited Bell and he quickly used a scale he found in the trash to find out the weight of his crystals. He found that the pouch had about three hundred grams, worth three thousand Valis.

Bell was happy, no he was beyond elated, three thousand Valis would last him ages! Bell knew however, that only official Adventurers could trade in magic stones because entrance was forbidden to the public. He could either hold on to them for some time or find a partner. He chose to keep them because of the risks having a partner involved and buried them in a small box he had. His time on the streets taught him that the only one you could trust was yourself.

* * *

The years slowly passed and Bell grew up, honing his skills of thievery as he stole. He eventually managed to furnish the basement with a coat rack, wardrobe, table and sofa. They were stolen from thieves homes or from the trash though, so they were old and damaged, but they served their tasks.

He also managed to replace the candles with an oil lamp, it was outdated compared to the lamps that lined the streets which ran on magic stones, but it provided enough light to see. Bell had also disassembled a bed and brought it in, it was a double bed, meaning that he would have plenty of space to sleep in.

As he matured, Bell realized how broken the economy of Orario was due to the availability of magic stones because presence of the dungeon. A hearty meal cost at most two thousand Valis, whereas a common enchanted dagger could cost upwards of five hundred thousand Valis. It was quite a broken system, but it somehow worked out. Bell had also upgraded his shiv to an actual one, rather than the makeshift one he created. It was sharper and camouflaged so the risk of being caught was greatly reduced.

He was overall satisfied with his lodgings and small fortune in magic stones. Bell decided to head out and join a Familia, though it would be difficult considering most of them recognized him as a scoundrel because he usually skulked around the areas of the city that were filled with con-artists and crooks.

After spending the day going through most of the Familia groups, Bell gave up and decided to head home. They all were either suspicious of him, had no need for weaklings or were out dungeoning. He laid on his bed and tried to think. He wanted to gain access to the magic stones section of the Guild, but the only way to do that was to be an Adventurer… It was then that it hit him, Bell thought back to the sign in front of the Guild's magic stone section.

'Only those who ventured into the depths of the dungeon and slayed a beast may enter.'

It obviously was referring to Adventurers, but it didn't state it explicitly, meaning that if he could enter the dungeon and kill something, he would gain access to the section and could go back to stealing. He wouldn't mind the change of pace, but stealing was what he was accustomed with.

Bell slept in anticipation of the next day. When he got up, he did some basic stretches and packed a basic provisions bag before setting off for the dungeon. He put on a black cloak and headed down the dungeon. As expected, the mobs there were simple Slimes which Bell easily outwitted and killed with his superior agility. Their transparent bodies allowed him to see their crystal cores clearly as well.

Bell was surprised the guards let him go through the dungeon doors, but he figured that he gave off the aura of a killer which intimidated them into thinking that he was an Adventurer. He continued to grind the Slimes and collect the puny magic stones they dropped. The mobs lacked the challenge he thought they would pose and he decided to head out.

On his way out, Bell saw a crimson light shining in a corner of the dungeon room and headed towards it. There he saw a strange insignia which reminded him of the key his parents had left him. He had brought it along in the hopes that he would finally find what it was for. Bell took the key out of his pack and looked at it, sure enough, the same insignia was engraved on the key.

The insignia was a circle with an eleven point star within it. Bell brought the key to the glowing insignia and a keyhole appeared, he inserted the key and twisted it. A rumbling sound was heard as age old mechanisms started to move. An area of the wall was pulled back and to the sides to reveal a room. Bell's gut told him to leave and never return, but his inner thief's curiosity won and he ventured into the room with caution.

What he found in the room was a dirty old book on a grey pedestal. He picked it up and the once dark and dusty room lit up with a blood red glow, all the dust seemingly disappearing. A demonic voice began to echo within the room as it spoke to Bell.

**"Son of Cranel, we have long awaited your arrival as it was predicted in the ancient scriptures!"**

"Who are you, what ancient scriptures do you speak of?!"

**"We are the forbidden ones, what your kind would call demons. The scriptures we speak of are timeworn writings that predict the happenings of the mortal world. They foretold the coming of a Cranel descendant that would free us from our prison at the bottom of the dungeon."**

"Why would I free you? You are supposed to be demons!"

**"It would seem that you have been deceived by them… Allow us to enlighten you on the lies you have been told…"**

The room's glow suddenly intensified tenfold as an influx of knowledge invaded Bell's head, contradicting all that he knew. The Gods that supposedly granted people blessings were not what they seemed to be. There were two different stories, one the Gods told, and the truth.

The Gods said they sacrificed their divine power to seal the demons at the bottom of the dungeon, once a vessel of a God reached the bottom and activated the seal, the demons would be permanently banished from the realm.

The truth however, was that these Gods were fallen angels that had rebelled and killed off the real Gods, including Bell's grandfather Zeus. Unlike what was commonly believed, the Gods and devils worked closely together to maintain order in the world. Zeus reached out to Satan with his dying breath to protect his grandson for he was the key to saving the world. The fallen angels were aware of this and sealed the demons away with the last of their power

Only two managed to escape the confinement, but with their energy supply from hell cut off, they slowly weakened. They spent what was left of their life protecting Bell from the fallen angels and eventually died off when he was young. The voices in his head receded and he half collapsed.

Bell breathed heavily as he tried to process the information that had just been dumped onto him. He felt lonelier than he ever had before, he had been alone in the world before, but now he knew that he stood as the last God as well. The room glowed a dim crimson glow as the voices spoke one final time.

**"Good luck Bell Cranel, may we meet again…"**

**T**he room was once again shrouded in darkness as Bell regained his senses. He opened up the book and a red panel popped up. It displayed his stats of strength, endurance, dexterity and agility. The magic section however was renamed to powers. His time as a thief gave him high agility and dexterity, but his strength and endurance were low. Under the skills section, there was a single ability.

_"Strength: 250_

_Endurance: 500_

_Dexterity: 1000_

_Agility: 1000_

_Powers: -_

_Godhood: Rank P"_

There was no description of the skill, only showing that it existed and was perfected. Bell clutched the book and left the dungeon, heading back to his church home where he laid in his bed and slept. He awoke the next day and put on his cloak, not even considering his appearance, Bell rushed out of the building and went towards the dungeon. He stole a piece of bread from the pocket of a random passerby, devouring it in mere seconds and entering the dungeon.

"Screw it! Whether it was true or not, I'm going to reach the end of the dungeon and find out the truth myself. I need to find out who or what I really am!"

Immediately upon entering, Bell fought his way to the second floor, intent on balancing out his stats. The enemies were simply larger Slimes with more health, easily cut down by Bell. He was set on his goal of increasing his strength for today, the bigger Slimes being thicker and so harder to cut through. Bell even went as far as tossing the Slimes at one another.

Don't let their size deceive you, Slimes were heavy, the magic stones had compressed the goop they were made of to an extreme extent and making it exceedingly dense. Bell continued his attacks for the rest of the day, no one payed any attention to him, seeing him as just some new Adventurer. Bell had no idea how long it had been, but when he exited the dungeon, it was already pitch black in the city. It was thanks to his trained eye that he was able to get back home safely.

"That training got my strength, agility and dexterity up to 1500, my endurance also increased to 750. Tomorrow will be for training endurance. I should head to the lower floors, the Slimes felt too easy, I'll need something harder to train up endurance."

The next day, Bell headed down to the lower floors and assessed the mobs. He decided to farm Dire Wolves on fifth floor because of their large crystal size compared to the Slimes and he wanted to remain inconspicuous. The wolves dissipated into dark energy as they died, leaving behind only their magic stones. He fought sloppily to conserve stamina and allow his endurance to rise. After a few hours of being attacked by the wolves, Bell decided to check his status and opened up the book.

His read status screen popped up and Bell saw that his endurance and other stats had balanced at 1750. He briefly wondered why he had gained stats so quickly and they were so balanced, dismissing it as part of his Godhood skill. Just as he was about to head home for the day, he heard a loud noise from the distant end of the hallway. Bell drew his daggers and dual wielded them with one in reverse grip.

Out of the darkness emerged a Minotaur, Bell looked at the mob and sized it up to be a mob from at least the fifteenth floor or below. He steeled himself for a moment before realizing that his stats were insanely high, meaning that this would be a simple task. He spun his two daggers and rushed forward, slashing at the beast. With each slash, a red lightning spark flickered in his eyes.

The Minotaur roared as more cuts and gashes opened up around it's body. Bell sliced off its tail jumped up onto his back while it squealed in pain. The brute struggled to get Bell off of itself, but he wrapped his arm around the Minotaur's horns and used them to pull himself up. Bell held his two daggers and stabbed them into the creature's eyes, blinding it and causing blood to gush from the sockets.

The beast cried out in pain as he held his bleeding eye sockets. Bell took the opportunity, to slide down a little and slit the monster's throat, silencing it. The monstrosity collapsed onto the ground and dissipated into dark energy, leaving behind a large magic stone behind along with its horn. Bell pocketed the items and headed out of the dungeon for a shower, the day of battle had covered him in blood and dislodged wolf teeth. He kept all his magic stones and sold the wolf teeth. Bell examined the Minotaur horn back at his home, intrigued by the carvings.

The demons had also bestowed a wealth of knowledge upon Bell. One of these was the ability to read any language. The previously unknown symbols started to make sense to Bell and he was captivated by the information present on the horn. It told of the battles the beast had won and the one it had lost, magically etched onto the horn by the magic stone core.

Another thing he learned was how to smith extremely unique weapons. Bell used the money he got from selling the wolf teeth to buy an anvil and set up a basic forge. He cleared up the debris within the church building and constructed the forge. It was a fairly simple forge, consisting of a smeltery, anvil, oven, cooling trough, grindstone and workbench.

He headed to bed satisfied with what he had accomplished, and fell asleep. That night, Bell dreamt of demons and Gods. The images of the past flashed before him, the great battles playing out in his mind, the knowledge bestowed upon him fully imparted now.

* * *

He saw as the olympian Gods fell, fighting off the fallen angels from all sides. The left was led by Zeus, his grandfather and the God of Lightning, and the right led by Ares, the God of War. The front was led by Heracles, Son of Zeus, and the back was led by Poseidon, God of Seas. All residents of Olympus fought to protect their home from the near endless swarm of fallen angels and their minions. The angels fought from the back, leaving their summoned minions to do their fighting.

Zeus led Demeter, Goddess of Fertility, Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, Athena, God of Wisdom, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, Dionysus, God of Wine, Eileithyia, Goddess of Childbirth, Harmonia, Goddess of Concord, Horae, Warden of Olympus, and Hera, his wife.

Zeus fired off lightning bolts at the dark angel's minions with Hera at his side. utilizing the abilities of his fellow Gods to hold them back. Athena helped him to plan and aim, Aphrodite charmed the minions, Dionysus made their ranged fighters drunk, Harmonia kept the fighter's morale up while the rest used the weapons Hephaestus forged to fend off the attackers.

Ares led Artemis, Goddess of Hunt, Deimos, God of Terror, Phobos, God of Fear, Enyo, Goddess of Warfare, Eris, Goddess of Discord, Apollo, God of Light, Eos, Personification of Dawn, Helios, Personification of the Sun, Kratos, Personification of Power, Nemesis, Goddess of Retribution, Nike, Goddess of Victory

Ares led the strongest front, with the goal of annihilating the enemy and moving to assist the other sides. Enyo fought with him side by side, Artemis fired off arrow after arrow at the fallen angel minions, Deimos and Phobos worked together with Eris to disrupt the attacker's morale, Apollo, Eos and Helios used their power to blind foes while the front liners took them down. Kratos was cutting at the front lines with his chain knifes, dishing out combo after combo at them, Nike fought at the back and raised the Gods' morale.

Heracles led Eros, God of Beauty, Hebe, Goddess of Youth, Pan, God of Nature, Bia, Personification of Force, Circe and Hecate, Goddesses of Magic, Momus, God of Satire, Perseus, Slayer of Medusa, Styx, Goddess of the River Styx, Tyche, Goddess of Luck.

Heracles fought off the enemies with support from Perseus and Bia. Eros and Hebe coordinated together to turn some of the minions to their side, Circe and Hecate were the spellcasters of the group, firing off spells while buffing allies, Momus and Styx used weapons forged by Hephaestus to aid in the defence while Tyche imbued them with luck.

Poseidon led Aeolus, King of Winds, Anemoi, Personification of the Four Winds, Aura, Goddess of Cool Breezes, Dione, Oceanid, Triton, Messenger of the Seas, Ganymede, Cupbearer, Hypnos, God of Sleep, Morpheus, God of Dreams, Leto, Titaness of the Unseen, Nyx, Goddess of Night, Zelus, Personification of Emulation and Amphitrite, his wife.

Poseidon led the strongest group, defending the front of Mount Olympus from the fallen angels. His power over the sea was boosted by Aeolus, Anemoi, Aura, Dione, Triton and Amphitrite, they all used their divine power to boost his attacks and knock out the enemies large armies. Hypnos, Morpheus, Zelus, Leto and Nyx worked together to knock out the stragglers while Ganymede took them out.

Hephaestus was working hard on his forge near the top of the mountain, repairing the weapons as the Gods fought. He worked day and night, creating weapons, shields and lightning bolts. Hermes and Iris were going as fast as they could, delivering the supplies to them. Asclepius and Paean headed from one front to another, treating the injuries of the fighting Gods.

Thanatos, God of Death, headed to the underworld to get the support of Hades and his legion of unholy troops. He had received orders from Zeus to bring his grandson along as well for he was too young to fight. Bell's father and mother stayed behind and fought at Zeus' side.

On the fallen angel's side, their forces consisted of dark troops created from the evil of humans. Each front was led by fifty-five fallen angels. Fifty average ones and five Watchers. The left was led by Azazel, Kokabiel, Bezaliel, Sathariel and Batariel. The right was led by Tamiel, Barquiel, Zadiel, Ananiel and Ramiel. The front was led by Chaz-Aqiel, Turiel, Yomiel, Arakiel and Penemue. The front was led by Semyaza, Amazarak, Gadreel, Akibeel and Shamsiel.

The power of the fallen angels slowly whittled down the divine power of the Gods and they got more and more injured. Their weapons got more and more worn, their armor more and more damaged, their shields more and more dented, slowly but surely, the Gods fell. The battle raged for days and nights as the Gods fell one by one, pushed back by the never ending swarm of fallen angel minions.

The only silver lining was that for every ally that fell, Nemesis got stronger, utilizing his powers to further strengthen himself. For all his strength, he could not protect his allies, inevitably he and Zeus were pushed back to the top of Mount Olympus.

They were the two remaining Gods of Mount Olympus, even Hephaestus, Hermes and Iris took up arms as things got grimmer. Asclepius and Paean tried the best they could to keep the other Gods alive and fighting, giving their own divine power in order to save others.

Zeus looked to Nemesis and saw as the legion of dark troops scaled the mountain, destroying the buildings and decorations along the way. He resolved himself to take down as many foes as he could and spoke to Nemesis.

"Goddess of Retribution, put all your power into one last attack and take down as many of them as you can."

"But what of Mount Olympus?!"

"I'm afraid there is nothing more we can do… I can only hope that Thanatos made it…"

"It has been an honour to fight at your side Zeus."

'I wonder where Gods go when they die…'

With that thought, Zeus grabbed the last of his lightning bolts and called upon the last of his power to empower them. Though supercharged lightning bolts took out a good amount of enemies, more would just take their place. He managed to delay the dark troops for hours, but eventually he too fell, giving Nemesis one final boost. With teary eyes, Nemesis unleashed all her power in a final desperate attempt to kill off the fallen angels.

A large explosion engulfed the entire mountain and two miles around it, severely damaging the landscape and any living thing within the radius. All the fallen angels critically injured, but most managed to recover using the life force of others, sacrificing some so that others could live. They took a head count in order to determine their losses.

The result of the battle was only one surviving resident of the now non-existent Mount Olympus and a hundred and twenty surviving fallen angels. They had lost four of the Watchers and over a million dark troops but successfully conquered Mount Olympus. The fallen angels then headed to the gates of Hell, located deep underground, where they sealed it and used most of their power to protect with a dungeon until they could regain enough of their strength to take down Hell.

Thanatos tried to delay the sealing as long as he could in order for Hades to gather his army but soon fell, only managing to protect Bell by sending him to be with the two gate guardian devils and ordering them to protect the boy with their lives. The gate was sealed and they were cut off from their source of energy.

With the last of their power, the fallen angels disguised themselves as the Gods they had slain, altering their forms to appeal to humans. Changing men into women that suited different tastes, weak men into buff ones and even some creatures. The fallen angels went into hiding, eventually creating a Bless system to leech power off strong humans that they trained in the dungeon.

* * *

Bell woke up the next day in silence, rage filled him, but he suppressed it to focus his thoughts.

'I will avenge my fallen comrades one fallen angel at a time, I now know why I was given the knowledge on how to make magic stone weapons. They are the only things which can harm fallen angels.'

Bell got out of bed and headed to his forge. He started it up and tossed all the magic stones he had into the smeltery, creating a purple glowing molten liquid that he poured into a custom dagger mold he had made while he waited for the crystals to melt.

Bell removed the dark purple translucent blank that was created and sharpened it on the grindstone. The dagger glowed a dark purple and light passed through it's transparent blade. Magic stone weapons could only be created in a single piece or they would break too easily.

The dagger Bell created was curved, its blade curved outward and had a serrated edge with a slight protrusion at the back. The bottom of the blade had another protrusion that was downward and the handle was curved inwards, making it easy to use in reverse grip. The bottom of the handle also had a miniature guillotine for added versatility.

Bell admired his weapon as it glowed, giving off a mystic aura and practiced spinning it. He did a few practice swings to get a feel of the weapon before heading off into the dungeon. The guards were afraid of him, the aura he released was more intimidating to them because the previous day, he came out of the dungeon soaked in blood and scars. They immediately parted for his entrance, afraid of what would happen if they tried to bar his path.

The mobs melted like butter against such a superior weapon and Bell relocated to the seventeenth floor to fight stronger mobs, which is where he fought the Centaurs. They were beasts that consisted of a man's torso and a horse's body. The Centaurs wielded crossbows and war axes. They provided a slight fight, but became easier and easier as Bell became stronger.

The day ended and Bell headed home, he tossed the magic stones he had gathered into the smeltery and forged a second dagger, similar to the first. He got a good grip on them and tried wielding both at once. It felt strange at first, but after spending the next day training Bell got used to it.

He wanted to try his new weapons on one of the fallen angel's minions, the Familia. They were supposed to be blessed with resistance to most mundane weapons and he wanted to see how his daggers would fare. So the next day, Bell went into the dungeon and waited for an averagely skilled Familia party to come along on the tenth floor. He stalked them until one of them split off from the main group, following closely behind and stabbing him in the back.

The dagger went in with little resistance, as if the armor was but a cloth and his skin, the air. It seemed that once forged into weapons, the magic stones gained arcane properties which greatly weakened those fallen angel in nature. The man struggled for air as Bell wrapped his arm around his neck to prevent him from alerting his allies. Bell was satisfied with his test and stabbed his dagger into the man's heart from the front, silencing him for good.

'One less Adventurer is one less enemy Hades and his forces will face, it is best that I take them out when convenient. '

He escaped the scene of the crime and headed back home to take a break, the past few days of vigorous training had taken a toll on him. A few hours passed and Bell decided to head to the bar where he heard whispers of a certain murder that had happened in the dungeon. He ordered the usual large plate of spaghetti with rum and wolfed it down, the fatigue making him feel hungrier.

He finished his meal and decided to have a drink while listening to the town gossip, he found out that some dangerous creatures had escaped from the arena owned by the Ganesha Familia. The news intrigued him and he went to hunt down the beasts. Bell questioned one of the colosseum workers first to find out what he should go after and discovered the strongest mob would be the armored Silverback, which was essentially a giant albino ape.

He found it rampaging around Daedalus Street and threw a rock at it to get its attention. The great beast roared and started to attack Bell. It opened its attack by tossing a chunk of concrete at him and charging. Bell easily jumped out of the way of the projectile and evaded the Silverback's charge. It smashed into the wall and he used the opportunity to climb up its back, the monster removed itself from the wall and tried to get him off its back.

Bell got onto the giant's head and brought his daggers down. The two daggers stabbed deep into the flesh and he twisted them as he tore them out, maximizing the pain and blood loss from the wounds. The creature cried out in pain as it tried to smash Bell, its large armored fist came at him but he dodged at the last minute. The SIlverback couldn't stop his attack in time and ended up hitting his own head. Bell landed on its mouth and proceeded to stab its eyes out while it was still stunned.

The great ape screamed in agony as it lost both its eyes, without sight, the monster started going on a rampage, destroying buildings and smashing into walls at random. Bell jumped off the creature and waited for an opening. The blind primate eventually tripped and fell, he utilized the opportunity and jumped onto its neck, slashing at it over and over again in order to get through the thick flesh. The albino flinched more and more as Bell carved deeper and deeper, causing more and more blood to gush out. With each slash, red lightning sparks flickered in his eyes.

Resistance from the Silverback became weaker and weaker as it slowly died. When it finally stopped moving, Bell got off and sheathed his daggers. The monster dissipated into dark energy, leaving behind an enormous magic stone. The crowd cheered as the mob died and rejoyced over their survival. Bell hoisted the crystal over his shoulder and started to walk away, but stopped when he heard someone call out to him.

"Hey you! Leave that here to pay for all the damages you caused!"

Bell put down the crystal and started to walk away. The man posed victoriously as he thought of the money he had saved in repairing his house. The man blinked and Bell disappeared from his sight. Feeling a dagger pressed at his throat, the man looked down and saw a glowing purple dagger that barely drew blood against his neck, he looked behind and saw Bell.

"Listen here, what do you think would have happened if I didn't take the Silverback down? I bet most of the people still alive here wouldn't be. You can argue that another Adventurer would have come along and slain it, but how many lives would have been lost in that time? Who's to say he will even defeat the beast? You'd better rethink what you just said or I will have to teach you how to be grateful…"

"Don't do anything too rash okay? I'm sorry, thank you for saving my life! Feel free to take the entire crystal with you!"

"Good."

Bell kicked the man to the pavement and walked to pick up his magic stone. Hoisting it onto his shoulder once more, he walked off in silence back to his hideout.

* * *

A/N: That's the end of the first chapter! Honestly, the Silverback died too easily in the Anime so I made it tougher here. This will likely be a four chapter story which I will update when the Anime is at Episode 7, 10. The fourth update will likely be a week after Episode 13 but no promises, so see you next time! Make sure to follow, review and check out my other stories and poll.


	2. Chapter 2: Liliruca Arde

A/N: Here it is as promised the second chapter. I'm really confused by the stats system so I will just be using a an ever increasing value for it without letters, I might correct it eventually if someone explains it to me clearly enough though I think it seems similar to the Shokugeki no Souma meat ranking system. Sorry if this chapter wasn't as long as the first but nothing much happened in Episode 5 so I had less material to work with and there wasn't a major battle or much of a flashback to write.

* * *

Bell set the large magic stone on a stone bench in his home, the great crystal glowed with power as he considered his options. He could sell it at the bank for maybe a million Valis, but what good would that actually do him? He could buy armor, but then again…

Bell dug into the knowledge bestowed upon him by the demons and found that they had only only given him the information on how to unlock certain properties of magic stones and how to craft the daggers. He thought about the options the crystal enhancements gave and decided to give his daggers cloaking, being able to hide his strength was essential in fighting stronger enemies so you could catch them by surprise.

Bell set out to locate the ingredients needed in the imbuing process. In order to bring out the cloaking property, the magic stones need to be submerged in a special liquid concocted from a mixture of slime and ectoplasm. He knew where to get slime, but the ectoplasm baffled him and so he set off to ask around about it.

A dungeon hunting advisor informed him of the spectral monsters that appeared on the thirtieth floor. He felt a bit threatened by the amount of floors lower he had to go but ventured off, confident in his ability to handle them due to his ridiculously high stats. It was on the thirtieth floor that he encountered the Wraiths. The ghostly apparitions were the souls of long dead Adventurers who fell in the dungeon over the years.

They had been bound to the will of the fallen angels to eternally haunt the hallways. Bell sliced them apart easily due to how strong he was, but their screams of pain as he temporarily put them out of their misery stung his heart. Seeing all the people who had fallen victim to the fallen angels' ploy only hardened his resolve as he continued his attacks, collecting ectoplasm along the way. He eventually exited the dungeon and sliced some Slimes on the way out once he felt he had enough.

Bell had gotten a lot of extra of both substances in order to attempt something. He set about mixing the slime and ectoplasm together, submerging his daggers in the substance while he tried out his idea. The demons had only given him the knowledge of how to smith the magic stone dagger, it was the book that had given him his smithing expertise.

His smithing skills were at the level of the original Hephaestus, having been granted the wisdom by the book. The book he received was a grimoire, given to him by the demons who had safeguarded it for years after Thanatos brought it to them. Within the book was the experiences of all the Olympian Gods that would unlock themselves when he needed them. Using that skill to his advantage, Bell decided to try and create his own magic stone armor.

The process seemed easy in his head, all he had to do was create a mold and fill it with smelted magic stones but he realize mid thought that he needed proper joints in order to move quickly in the armor. Bell searched deep into his mind for a property he could awaken in the magic stones to counter this issue and found flexibility to be suitable.

Like the cloaking, he could enable and disable it, so he decided he could harden it on impact so it would be effectively heavy armor while still allowing him to move freely. He created the mold for his full body armor and melted the magic stones into the full body mold. Once it had cooled, Bell cracked open the mold and submerged it in the liquid after removing his daggers.

While waiting for his armor to adapt, Bell set out to find the components needed for the imbuing. He tested the cloaking of his daggers and they worked perfectly, completely disappearing from sight to others but not to him. He held it up to a man's face to check and sure enough it went unnoticed. The imbuing called for slime and a tendon. The tendon could come from any creature so Bell opted to go for easy wolf tendons.

He only needed tendons due to his excess slime and got to work dismembering wolves who stupidly charged the obviously stronger opponent without concern. He harvested the tendons and headed back home where he grinded them into a fine dust. Bell mixed it with the slime and let his armor soak it up. After a few minutes, the armor could change from being rubbery to steel like at Bell's command.

It was around this point that he realized how smelly his equipment was because they had been soaking in slime and other disgusting things. He took his armor and daggers out by the river for a wash. Once the foul stench had been cleansed, Bell took a bath himself and put on a fresh set of clothes before deciding to take a break for the day. He rested for an hour before heading to Babel.

'I'll need a decoy weapon at least to show that I can fight. Smithing one would be too much of a pain so I'll just acquire one from some of the merchants.'

Bell walked around the area and eventually spotted a dagger he thought would be great for seeming weak. He talked to the blacksmith and gestured to a weapon with one hand, feeling its blade. He eventually got into a heated negotiation over the price with the man and carefully swiped the dagger.

Bell acted like the deal was off and walked off, the blacksmith hardly noticed that his dagger was gone and proceeded to the next customer. The dagger was completely banged out of shape and would have been better off as scrap metal. The blade was so blunt it could only cut through paper. It was awful as a weapon, but perfect for its purpose.

Bell headed home and retrieved his daggers and armor. They had been dried out by now and were ready for use. He set them down in cloaked mode beside his bed and went to sleep. He headed to the dungeon the next day with his new gear and continued to train up his stats to 3000 at the thirty-first floor, eradicating the monsters which roamed the floor.

He exited the dungeon once his stats were satisfactory and decided to scout out strong opponents to look out for. Bell noted the main enemy figures that could pose a threat to him such as Aiz Wallenstein, the Sword Princess, and Bete Louga of the Loki Familia. He was also wary of the Soma Familia, they had been causing huge issues over money recently, desperately trying to get as much Valis as possible.

Eventually after a few minutes, he was approached by a small person carrying a large pack who broke him from his thoughts.

"Mister! Mister! You with the white hair!"

"Hmm?"

He studied the figure carefully and found it to be a female Chienthrope only to realize it was an illusion spell that disguised her after more .

"Hello, mister! Sorry to bother you but are you looking for a supporter?"

Bell wondered how this girl had managed to deduce he was an Adventurer since his armor and weapons were currently cloaked, only his casual clothes and crooked dagger were visible. She must have seen him fight the Silverback. Bell thought about the situation for some time before some of the knowledge the Grimoire embedded into his mind unlocked itself, he smirked at the implications of this new information and decided to humor her.

"So what if I am? What could you offer me?"

"I will collect all your loot for you so you can focus on killing the monsters without stopping to pick it up. I will only want a small portion of the spoils as payment so you will still profit overall."

"Interesting, but why choose me? I don't have any armor and my only weapon is this dagger."

Bell pulled out his crooked dagger and held it amateurly.

"Well… All the other Adventurers around here either already have supporters or don't want me so I could only ask you."

"So I was a last option?"

"Yes... I mean no! I mean…"

"I might as well, what's your name and when do you wish to start?"

"I'm Liliruca Arde and is now okay with you?"

"Yea it's fine, not like I have anything else to do anyway."

The pair headed off into the dungeon and Bell decided to appear only somewhat competent. He fought on the tenth floor and killed off the enemies carefully without getting hit in order to not reveal his armor. At the end of the day, he had grinded through most of the mobs which surprised Lili. She wanted to steal his strange daggers and sell them off once she found them but actually being a supporter seemed to be much more beneficial because of how much he was earning.

When they sat at the table to split the magic stones, Bell simply took a fifth of it and handed the rest to Lili. Since he had killed so many mobs, he had gotten an entire large bag of magic stones, meaning that Lili was practically holding a fortune in her hands.

"Bell-sama! This is too much, I should be getting that portion!"

"Take it as an act of goodwill to mark the beginning of our partnership, I'll wait for you here tomorrow morning so see you then."

Bell walked off into the mist of the night and disappeared from Lili's sight. She looked at the bag she held in her arms and ran off to the bank to exchange it and pay her debts. Though what she got was the opposite of what she had been hoping for, instead of being happy for getting such a large amount, they forced her to bring back this amount or more everyday or they would hit her more.

At this point she realized that what she had done indirectly permanently linked her and Bell since she doubted any other Adventurers would be willing to employ her since she was infamous in the industry. Lili could only hope that Bell would earn more so she could reach her new quota. What she didn't expect however, was for him to give her a necklace made of purple crystals at the end of the day.

She knew that selling the necklace would get her enough money for today, but it was the first time anyone had given her anything out of their own free will and wanted to treasure it. Lili left silently with her share that day which was still a whopping seventy percent and rolled around in her bed thinking of what to do.

'Why is he being so nice to me? He barely even knows me and has given me all this... I still haven't seen his daggers either but I don't care anymore. What should I do? This is making me so frustrated!'

She got up and admired the necklace, it was expertly made, every single part of it was crafted masterfully as if Hephaestus herself created it. She wondered where Bell had gotten it from since he had given her so much of the loot.

'He must have bought it when he was out fighting on his own… It looks so beautiful, especially when light shines on it… I can't bare to sell it! It's too good to sell! I need to hide it from them so they don't force me to!'

The next day, Lili met up with Bell spotting a few hidden bruises. It was uneventful as they farmed on the thirteenth floor but the spoils were good. While resting at one of the safe zones, Bell wondered if his plan had worked and asked Lili about his necklace.

"Where is the necklace I gave you?"

"I have it with it now."

"Why aren't you wearing it?"

"I wouldn't look good in it…"

"Nonsense, I made it specially for you."

"You made it?"

"Of course, it wouldn't do for such a cute girl to go without some jewelry would it?"

Lili blushed and took the necklace out of her pack. She handed it to Bell who helped to put it around her neck. As soon as he clicked it into place, Lili's eyes turned dark purple and her face became expressionless. He smiled darkly and spoke to her.

"Who is your master?"

"Bell Cranel."

"Good."

Bell put his hand onto her head and used his God Powers to access the information she held. His hand froze the moment the information flooded into his mind and all her pain was made known to him. A lifetime of unhappiness, abuse, loneliness, betrayal, guilt, rejection, burden and injustice where she was constantly degraded, exploited and looked down upon.

"I know Gods can't solve all problems but does this really have to happen?! Even the fallen angels should have some semblance of sympathy for this kind of thing right?!"

Bell smashed the wall at the thought that such cruelty could take place for the sake of a drink.

"This Familia, the Soma Familia, needs to be destroyed… For the sake of their precious wine, they have mistreated an innocent child and twisted her into this! I don't know which fallen angel you really are Soma, but you are the first on my hit list!"

He put her to sleep and brought Lili back to his hideout.

'I know I can't save everyone, but there has to be a way to save someone. I have to help this girl, I likely can't afford to save the ones after her, but at least she will be saved.'

Bell laid her small fragile form onto the stone bench he had at home. Even if the Familia system was something the fallen angels had created, surely as a true God he should be able to imitate it right? He took off her clothes and saw the cursed mark on her back, the writings which binded her as a servant of the fallen angels.

His will to save her reached the knowledge given to him by the grimoire and the knowledge to dispel such a curse was made known to him. He focused his divine power at his fingertip and carefully traced the runes, burning them off her back. It took him a grueling hour of precise work to avoid accidentally burning her but once it was done and the mark was removed,

Bell then moved on to finish the ritual. He burned his own mark onto her upper arm. It was a lightning bolt much like his grandfather's, only that it was rotated ninety degrees to face sideways and where Zeus' was gold in colour, his was red. The process was done and Bell covered her with a blanket before taking a seat to rest. He knew what the ritual would do to him but he never expected such a drain on his energy. As he thought, overdoing this would take a heavy toll on his physical state.

It was only an hour later that Bell had fully recovered and was able to prepare some food and drinks for the girl when she awoke. He removed the necklace around the neck and the spell was lifted. She awoke in a daze and rubbed her eyes.

"Bell-sama? What is going on?"

She then looked down and saw herself half naked, she pulled the blanket higher to cover her body and started tossing things at Bell. Though the thing was, Bell didn't have much in the way of throwable furniture so it wouldn't be long before she ran out of things to throw at him.

"I can't believe you! You're horrible! You philanderer! Womanizer! Pervert! Enemy of womankind! Lolicon! How dare you do this to me!"

Meanwhile, Bell was dodging the things flying at him, sort of sad that the alarm clock he had used for all these years would ring no more, or that the candle holder he had since young would no longer hold a candle upright, or that his only bowl which he had been using for years was destroyed. Many other things were damaged but Lili finally ran out of things to toss and started to calm down.

"Now that you've had your fill of anger release can I explain myself?"

"Whatever."

"Now Lili, I'm really a God."

"Yeah and I'm the queen."

"Lili, I have seen your memories and know of what you've been through all these years. I couldn't stand by and let this continue so I saved you. I freed you from the Soma Familia, look for yourself if you don't believe me."

Bell handed her a mirror that hadn't been destroyed yet and she used it to check her back for the markings, only to discover there were none.

"How?! I've never heard of a God taking another God's Familia before!"

"I'm a special God Lili, I've retained most of my divine power and so can do such things."

"Oh… But then if I'm now part of your Familia then why aren't there new marks on my back?"

"I don't use those, check your upper left arm."

Lili checked it and saw the red sideways lightning bolt he had etched.

"How am I supposed to check my status with this?"

"Just tap the lightning bolt and you will instantly know."

She tried it once and immediately knew how much her stats were and how much they had improved by since she last checked.

"So what do you want?"

"What do you mean?"

"Surely you didn't save me for nothing right?"

"Hmm, I guess just be a good Familia and help me in my endeavours?"

"Can I still call you Bell-sama?"

"I don't see why not."

"Okay Bell-sama, what is the first thing you want me to do?"

"It's simple really, help me to destroy the Soma Familia."

"Huh?! Bell-sama, that's a really bad idea, most of the Adventurers there are really strong because they are fueled by the desire to live so they can drink more of the wine!"

"That is exactly why I must bring a stop to it, Soma has gone far enough with this ploy. He is enslaving them with this wine and needs to be stopped."

"Bell-sama! They have hundreds of members in their ranks and are one of the strongest Familias, do you honestly think you can defeat them?!"

"Relax Lili, I have a plan but we will start small first. We are going to use their exploitation of you against them. We know they are definitely going to come after you for more Valis because of the wine so it's simple, we lure them into a trap."

"What kind of trap?"

"They think I'm some weak Adventurer right? So let's use that to our advantage. Tell them I've found an ultra rare item and that you'll be stealing it from me but need their help. That will have their attention for sure, just pretend to lead me to the tenth floor and allow them to ambush me."

"Okay, it's about time I have my revenge on those guys."

* * *

They proceeded as planned and Bell was ambushed by a horde of Orcs. He used his crooked dagger to kill off the Orcs and feigned exhaustion afterwards. As expected, the group of four emerged from the fog with their weapons drawn, ready to mug him.

"Hand over that rare item if you want to live kid!"

"Hahahahahahaha!"

"Don't you understand the position you're in right now kid? We could kill you easily, Arde led you into our trap splendidly!"

"I think it is you who doesn't understand, Lili has led you into my trap."

"Bwahahaha! Get a load of this guy! He thinks he's hot stuff!"

**"Finger of Death!"**

Just as he finished the sentence, a bolt of red lightning shot forth from Bell's finger and hit him. The bolt of lightning did not electrocute him, but rather his body started to swell, as if he was in space and the air in him was trying to escape. The red lightning was turning him inside out, ripping him apart from the inside as his body imploded into a mess of blood and organs.

It was a spell Bell had learned when the pain and suffering of Lili was made known to him, the rage he felt manifested itself into a spell created for the sole purpose of torturing its victim before his demise, Finger of Death.

The others stopped laughing and were paralysed with fear for a few seconds before they desperately tried to get away, running away in three separate directions. Running wouldn't do them any good as Bell rushed forth and impaled one with his invisible daggers, turning off the cloaking. He then moved on to kill another one before flicking the blood off his dagger, sheathing and cloaking it again.

He looked into the distance to see Lili catch their leader. She walked out from behind a tree landform and stopped the running Soma Familia member in his tracks.

"Arde! How dare you set us up like this! At least you had to guts to come and accept your death bravely!"

"You are mistaken Kuradeel, I came here to kill you myself, there's no need to trouble Bell-sama further with trash like you…"

"Don't underestimate me Arde!"

"It is you who shouldn't underestimate me Kuradeel…"

Lili drew her magic flame dagger and fired off a firebolt at him, the fireball burned through his leather armor and melted a hole straight through him. He fell down as the pain numbed, looking up to see Lili standing above his corpse.

"The Soma Familiar will fall, such is the will of Bell-sama…"

He closed his eyes as death claimed him and Lili returned to Bell.

"Bell-sama, the deed is done."

"Well done Lili, we are one step closer to our goal. For the next step I need you to go back to the Familia and report that some high level Adventurers died in the dungeon, like before, they have gotten a special rare item but you couldn't get it in time to loot it. You just bring them to the spot and leave, claiming that you have something important to do so they can have it all to themselves."

"Which floor will we be using this time?"

"The thirteenth floor, we can't use anything much stronger or they'll be too scared to try."

"We'll do this tomorrow, today we'll be farming to increase our stats."

"Yes, Bell-sama."

"We will meet at the hideout for dinner later on so be sure arrive on time. I'll be going to the lower floors so see you later."

* * *

The day soon came to a close and Bell headed to the tavern to buy some food home. What surprised him was the sheer volume of rumors regarding his activities. He decided to listen in on some of the conversations to see how much had really been found out about him.

"Did you hear? There's some white haired kid who reached the fortieth floor in just a matter of days!"

"No way! Even Aiz Wallenstein took years to get that far!"

"It's true! I was lucky enough to see him today, the damndest thing is, he doesn't wear any armor at all! All he had on him was a crooked dagger and some commoner clothes. The only thing that would show he had been so deep was the loot he carried, you should have seen the sack of magic stones he brought back with his supporter! The little thing was carrying a bag the size of a large beer barrel while he was lugging the biggest magic stone I'd ever seen with just one arm!"

"That's crazy! Whose Familia is he from?"

"That's the thing, I've asked around but no one knows where he came from. Even the guards only knew of him a couple of days ago. I'm too afraid to ask him personally, he seems pretty scary with those scarlet red eyes."

"I've gotta see this for myself, his stats must be insane!"

"You probably won't get to, he practically lives in the dungeon, the guards say they rarely see him leave early. Some say he's a demon or something, that only something unholy could grant him so much power."

Bell chuckled at the rumor and listened in on another conversation.

"DId you hear of the murder in the dungeon?"

"Which one, people get killed for their money everyday there."

"The one on the tenth floor, I went there to check and saw the aftermath, his body was gone and the entire area was covered in blood, all his organs were splattered around with bone fragments."

"There's only Orcs and Killer Ants there, those couldn't have done such a thing…"

"Exactly, it was almost as if someone fed him a bomb or something, though there weren't any scorch marks on the pieces that I could see. Another guy was found with a hole straight through him, the dungeon is getting more and more dangerous by the minute nowadays."

"Ugh, I'm good thing I'm only on the seventh floor, I wouldn't want to go down there."

"Well you have to eventually and then if you ask nicely, your good friend Shu will protect you!"

"Yeah as if!"

Bell frowned slightly when he realized how fast information on the incident had spread. The Adventurers from the Soma Familia would undoubtedly still go regardless of the dangers but it was never good for people to be too wary of an area, they would avoid it and that would limit his options at times.

Satisfied with the information, Bell took his two packs of extra large spaghetti and wine and left for his hideout. He set the table and decided that if someone was going to live with him then he would need some new furniture. Just as he finished laying out the food, Lili walked down the stairs, back from her stroll through town. They sat down and had their food together. They chatted for a bit about the mobs in the dungeon and Bell brought up the topic.

"Lili, do you want to get some new furniture around here? It seems pretty under furnished when there's two of us."

"Sure, I don't mind, I'll get some after dungeoning tomorrow but how long will it be until we attack the Soma Familia for real?"

"Patience Lili, we haven't even identified the second in command of the Familia yet, the one who actually leads the bunch in place of Soma."

"Yes, Bell-sama."

"Don't fret Lili, you will have your revenge soon enough, we will strike when we get more information."

* * *

A/N: Well there's the second chapter, hope you liked it. Again, I would be grateful if someone would explain the status system to me through a message or something. Be sure to check out my other stories, poll, follow, favourite and review if you enjoyed.


	3. Chapter 3: Minos the Minotaur

A/N: Episode 7-9 were mostly useless for material to work with so I had to work with my own brain, sorry if this comes out badly since I wrote this last minute due to me watching Episode 9 only a few days ago. I understand the stats system now but will continue to use mine, an ever increasing value, since it is too troublesome to change to it.

As for my thoughts on Episode 8 if anyone was wondering: Once Upon A Time, Bell Cranel… Got Good!

I'm sorry if the Minotaur fight is not as epic as in the Anime but I honestly doubt I can make it difficult for Bell considering how much stronger he is.

* * *

A few days have passed and Bell has gotten considerably stronger along with Lili as they continued to train in the dungeon. They had slowly been killing off members of the Soma Familia, eliminating close to a hundred of its members. Due to the way Soma controlled his Familia, none of his people were scared off by the rumors of Soma Familia Adventurers being murdered in the dungeon. Some even saw it as an opportunity to get a ton of loot by killing the culprit, allowing Bell to have a steady flow of prey.

The rumors in the tavern grew more and more outrageous as he got more and more powerful. Most were far from the truth but some were ironically accurate, though usually put off as false by those who heard it because of how ridiculous it was. Bell's training has raised his stats to 10, 000 each and that was between fights with Soma Familia Adventurers.

There was no need to upgrade his gear as the magic stones only got stronger as more dark energy was gradually absorbed by them. He felt confident about attacking Soma, most of the people he interrogated cracked easily once he started to inflict some pain. He had learned of a man named Zannis Lustra who was the one who stood in as leader of the Familia.

'He is said to often fight on the fifteenth floor. I doubt I can bring Lili along for that so I will need to assign a separate task to her while I seek him out and kill him.'

He downed a mug of wine as he thought of his next move.

'I guess she can try to find out where Soma is hidden in that base of his but-'

He was interrupted from his thoughts when a man burst through the tavern shouting.

"They're all dead!"

A man, presumably from his Familia, approached him.

"What happened? Who are dead?"

"Shimada's party was wiped out! I saw it with my own eyes! Some huge enraged Minotaur wielding a giant blade hacked them to pieces!"

"You're joking, they were all Level 2!"

"I know what I saw! I'm going back to tell the rest, whatever you do, don't go down to the ninth floor!"

'An enraged Minotaur? Interesting, it might be worth checking out on my next trip.'

The next day, Lili took a day off to take care of her landlord who had gotten ill and Bell took this opportunity to investigate the supposed enraged Minotaur. When he got to the end of the eighth floor, he saw some Adventurers who were heavily injured and leaning against a wall. He noted they were the ones who were warned not to go to the ninth floor yesterday.

"I assume the Minotaur did this?"

The least injured of the batch spoke up.

"Aye, I recommend you stay away from there, it's not worth trying. I question how you even got down here with just that crooked dagger and cloth shirt."

"I'll see you around then."

"Wait, you aren't honestly trying to take that thing down are you?! You'll get killed!"

"Don't make me laugh. Who the hell do you think I am?"

Bell walked down the stairs and sure enough, in the middle of the cavern, stood a Minotaur with bloodshot red glowing eyes. Its skin had also been stained red, dyed in all blood of its victims. The beast wielded a Basler with a protruding tip but it seemed jagged and damaged, suggesting that it was extremely scarred from all the battles the Minotaur had fought.

'Intriguing, I never knew Minotaurs wielded actual blades, they usually use stone ones which are brittle and blunt, I wonder where he got it from.'

Bell approached the Minotaur with a smirk on his face as the monster roared and charged him.

"Stop! You're gonna get killed!"

Someone had seemed to have followed him down and was worried for him. Bell looked back for a moment and saw it was the Loki Familia. They had apparently planned to go for a raid in the lower levels of the dungeons but took a detour to save the supposed ill-equipped Adventurer who went after the Minotaur. The Minotaur brought the large sword down on Bell's head, only for it to be stopped in mid-air by an invisible force to the surprise of onlookers who expected him to die.

"And here I expected a challenge…"

As it had been struck, the cloaking of the dagger was disabled and revealed itself to the party. Its purple pulsing form leaving them in awe as Bell knocked away the huge sword of the Minotaur easily and proceeded to inflict light cuts into the beast's flesh

"What is with that knife?!"

"It's not just the knife Bete, this kid is something else…"

"What is that supposed to mean Riveria?"

"Look at his speed, he's playing with it, the Minotaur doesn't stand a chance."

"He's level one right? He wasn't mentioned at the Denatus after all! What Familia does he even belong to?!"

"I don't know, but he seems to display exceptional skill, not to mention his weapon seems to be beyond even what the Hephaestus Familia is capable of."

"Just who the heck is this guy…"

The fight between Bell and the Minotaur raged on as they watched him toy with the monster, bullying it into submission. After an hour of being constantly injured, the Minotaur, incapable of landing a single blow on Bell, finally yields from the torture. It embeds its sword into the ground and gets on its knees. The first cuts of the fight had already scabbed over and healed partially, the beast could take no more.

This action took even Finn, an experienced Adventurer and the leader of the group, by surprise.

"Impossible! I've never seen a monster surrender before in all my years of dungeoning!"

Bell then placed his hand onto the head of the Minotaur and implanted information into its mind. The beast analyzed the thoughts it received and understood what it had to do. It rose and pulled out the sword from the earth, then, to the surprise of the group watching, it spoke.

"What would you ask of me Master?"

"We're leaving."

"Very well."

Bell walked past the group who were too awestruck to say anything with the Minotaur in tow, surprising the injured Adventurers on the eighth floor who thought the monster had come for them after dispatching the others. The biggest scare was when he brought it out to the city, no one dared look him in the eye or follow him for fear of angering the Minotaur.

Back at the dungeon, the Loki Familia Adventurers finally regained their senses.

"That kid just enslaved a Minotaur, one of the most aggressive creatures in the dungeon…"

"Not only that, the damn thing spoke, just who the hell is this guy?!"

"Calm down Bete. Finn, should we call off the expedition for today?"

"No, we will report our findings when we return."

The party moved on to their destination floor and started to push deeper into the dungeon. Bell headed back to his home and made a makeshift bed on the ground level for the Minotaur to sleep.

'Now how am I going to explain this to Lili...'

Just as Bell was thinking of a way to break it to Lili about the Minotaur, she entered the church and quickly moved between Bell and the Minotaur with her weapon drawn.

"Get back Bell-sama, there's a Minotaur here!"

It pointed to its upper arm where a red sideways llightning bolt was visible.

"Relax human, I mean you no harm."

"It spoke…"

"Master freed my mind from the shackles of the dungeon and brought me out of that accursed place. As such, I have pledged my life to serving him and will fight alongside you against the Soma Familia. Though there is little hope for the rest of my kind for I could only be freed as I wandered too far from my floor, though that is a story for another time, for now we should focus on dealing with Soma. For the sake of convenience in battle you may refer to me as Minos."

Lili took some time to process the information and sighed.

"Just what the heck have you been up to Bell-sama…"

"Glad you understand Lili, is the gnome all better now?"

"Yes, why?"

"We'll be attacking Zannis tomorrow but I have a special job assigned to you Lili. You will need to acquire large amounts of magic stones for me, I need it for a project of mine."

"Very well Bell-sama."

* * *

The next day arrived and Bell headed back into the dungeon with the Minotaur while Lili contracted with some Soma Familia Adventurers to rob them of their magic stones. Bell made sure to use lesser known paths in order to avoid attracting attention of other Adventurers as the pair made their way down to the fifteenth floor. They managed to reach the fifteenth floor without incident and locate Zannis' party of five.

Bell sent Minos the signal to carry out the strategy that they had discussed beforehand and he rushed out from the shadows at the adventurers, knocking three of them off their feet and slashing another with his sword. Bell dashed out afterwards and silently stabbed the sniper of the group in the back, eliminating him from the fight.

Zannis and his three remaining members got together and tried to fight off the beast.

"Why the heck is there a Minotaur up here?! They should be two floors down damn it! Ishida, we need covering fire!"

He looked around for his partymate, only to see him lying on the ground dead.

"Tsk, the bastard got up and died on me, now how am I supposed to deal with this…"

Minos roared and clashed swords with Zannis' while blocking blows from the others. The one who had been injured at the start had already been secretly dispatched by Bell while the other three charged ahead. Zannis sensed something wrong and turned back to see another partymate dead.

"Someone's picking us off, Shinji, guard our rear while Yuji and I deal with this thing!"

Bell then revealed himself and fought with Shinji, wielding both daggers and easily overpowering the man through sheer speed and versatility. With his ally slain, Yuji immediately came to hold off Bell, though to little success as he was soon cut down as well, leaving Zannis as the only one left. As planned, Minos knocked away Zannis' weapon and made way for Bell to speak.

"Who the heck are you, why did you attack me!"

"You haven't heard of me? Well, not that it matters, all that matters is that you are no longer there to keep the Soma Familia from falling apart."

"Wait, no what are you going to do to me?! No, please!"

**"Finger of Death!"**

A red bolt of lightning streamed out from Bell's fingertips and hit Zannis, causing his body to swell and eventually burst from the inside out.

"I get the need for him to pay for his crimes Master, but did you have to kill him in such a brutal way?"

"It is what he deserves Minos, there's no telling how many sins he has committed in order to rise above the rest of his Familia."

"Very well."

"We will now meet up with Lili to assist her in the 'acquiring' of her magic stones."

"Yes Master."

The two met up with Lili as she was searching the corpses for anything valuable.

"We wanted to help you but it looks like you don't need it."

"Bell-sama, how did it go?"

"I achieved my goal and in a few days the Soma Familia should fall apart. Without a leader to keep them in line and the other higher ups with him dead, the Adventurers will no doubt do anything they can to get more money."

"What do we do until then?"

"We train, I'm going to need a ton more magic stones to achieve what I'm planning."

"Alright Bell-sama."

"The crystals I got from Zannis will be traded in for our living expenses while I use the rest."

They trained for a couple of weeks and Bell picked up interesting rumors regarding the Soma Familia. They had apparently been causing problems all over town and in the dungeons. Murder, theft, extortion and haggling with the bankers. They did anything to get money as predicted by Bell. As Bell was exiting a store, a courier suddenly came up to him and handed him a note, it read:

"_Gods who have received this letter, come and bring a representative to the Town Meeting Hall at noon today or for an emergency meeting regarding the Soma Familia._

_-The Guild"_

'Everything is going according to plan...'

Bell attended the meeting at the specified time and sat in a seat while the other Gods streamed in. The one who called the meeting was the head of the Guild, Royman Mardeel.

"Now everyone, I am glad you took the time to heed my summon. As you may have heard, the Soma Familia has gotten a little more… aggressive as of late in their pursuit of money."

"I know not the cause of this, but we need to resolve the situation before it gets out of hand."

"Ganesha agrees!"

"True, there is a need to act now in order to prevent further problems but what then what about the Soma?"

"Loki, while it is unfortunate that you will lose your wine, if we don't do anything now then the situation will escalate beyond solving."

"Hmph."

"To save time we shall do this by vote, those who do not wish to participate in dealing with the issue leave now."

A few representatives and Gods left but most stayed.

"Anyone has an idea to resolve the situation?"

"We could bar them from the Guild until the incidents stop."

"Hmm… That is a possibl-"

"No, the only way to stop this is to destroy the Soma Familia."

"You, do you have any idea what you are saying?!"

"I know how the Soma Familia operates, bar them from the Guild and the'll force others to do it for them. The killings and thefts might even increase as they lose a source of income. The only solution is to destroy the Familia once and for all."

Those present all considered the option carefully, knowing full well that he was right.

"We shall take another vote, those who support the destruction of the Soma Familia raise your hands, those who do not, don't."

A majority of the hands were raised and the decision was made.

"Those who do not wish to participate may leave, the rest of us will stay and form a plan."

Those who did not raise their hands left and the others started formulating a plan. Bell left as well, to inform Lili and Minos of what had happened.

"Lili, Minos, the Guild is now strategizing with other Familias to destroy the Soma Familia. We will of course participate, but we won't be following their plan at all, I want to deal with Soma personally."

"Yes, Bell-sama."

"Understood, Master."

Bell later found out about the date set for the attack on Soma and decided to listen to some more rumors at the tavern. Some interesting ones had surfaced regarding his recent exploits.

"Did you hear? That kid enslaved a Minotaur!"

"What? Impossible, those things are senseless raging beasts? How did he pull it off?"

"Some say he put it under mind control or something but I saw it myself believe it or not, he tortured the damn thing into submission. I was lying in the corner once it smashed me away and this guy came up awhile later. He was messing with it, the guy was moving so fast I could barely keep my eye on him."

"Wow, who the heck is this guy?"

"I don't know, but he used the knife of his and cut the Minotaur maybe hundreds of times."

"The crooked garbage dagger?"

"No, he got a new one, some glowing purple one."

"Man, I'd hate to be on his hit list, having a Minotaur against me would be nasty, don't even start on him."

"You should be safe man, word on the street is that he only targets strong players so you should be fine."

"Phew, for a second there I thought you were gonna say he was targeting me… Hey wait a minute, you just called me weak didn't you!"

"Maybe…"

"Get over here you bastard and let me punch you, then we'll see who's weak!"

"Hey stay away, haha!"

Bell downed another mug of beer as he saw the man chase his friend in an attempt to get revenge.

'I guess my exploits have been pretty prominent in the rumor mill, I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing..."

* * *

The day for the destruction of the Soma Familia came and the participating Familias were all gathered in front of the building. Soma had learned of the attack and used the Soma to call the Adventurers to his defense, offering a drink to anyone who fought valiantly.

Bell and his group entered after the main force did and spearheaded into the centre of the facility to where Soma was, slicing down all in their path. Lili and Minos guarded the door while Bell confronted Soma.

"Soma, who are you, reveal yourself."

"What ever could you mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me, I know you're one of them."

Soma's voice suddenly changed and sounded deeper.

"So… you are the one… I might not be at full strength yet, but I should definitely be able to take you down!"

Soma's black wings sprouted from his back as his true form was revealed.

"I am Kasdeja, you will regret approaching me."

Kasdeja rushed Bell and slammed into him with incredible force. The impact sent Bell flying across the room but he was largely unscathed thanks to his armor and immediately got up.

"Quite the tough piece of armor you have ther-"

Kasdeja flinched in pain as he noticed that the parts which collided with the armor had been badly burned.

"What is that material…"

"Magic stones Kasdeja, the one thing left in this world that can harm fallen angels, the rest have already been destroyed by the rest of your kind."

"Impossible, how could we have overlooked such a thing?!"

"Maybe you can ask some of your friends in the afterlife."

"Fool, I don't have to touch you to kill you!"

Kasdeja launched balls of concentrated void energy at Bell who dodged them expertly. Enraged by his miss, Kasdeja fired off a volley of projectiles at Bell, eventually giving up when Bell started to taunt him for his misses. He focused his power and pulled a blade out from the void, using it to fight his foe head on.

They clashed blades and fought with such speed and strength that any normal human would only see a blur and feel the shift of the wind. Kasdeja was stronger, but Bell was faster. In the case of this fight, Bell got the upper hand, able to keep his opponent at bay by alternating his dagger strikes such that Kasdeja was forced to either dodge or block them at weird angles.

Kasdeja was forced to stay on the defensive as Bell barraged him with dagger strikes. He was pushed back quite far in the room and soon hit a wall where he noticed a plant he had been growing. The roots of the plant were said to be extremely poisonous and Kasdeja used that to his advantage by crushing the root into powder, then tossing it at Bell.

Bell dodged the powder but this created the opening Kasdeja needed. The fallen angel came up behind Bell and tried to stab through his armor with the sword, only for it to break on impact, notifying Bell of Kasdeja's presence. He immediately backflipped over Kasdeja and pierced both his wings mid-flight.

Kasdeja howled in pain as his wings were damaged severely, rendering him incapable of flight. He fired off a beam of dark energy at Bell in anger which was countered by Bell's Finger of Death. The two spells neutralized each other as they fought for dominance. The crackingly of lightning and hum of dark energy echoed through the building as the two clashed.

Outside with the main force, they were trying to gain ground on the Soma Familia but seemed to keep getting pushed back due to the indomitable moral and spirit of the Adventurers determined to taste the God's Wine. Many feared killing actual humans and did not attack with all their might, whereas the Soma Familia Adventurers saw the enemy as obstacles to overcome in order to receive their prize and mercilessly fought.

The leader of the attack was Aiz Wallenstein, the Sword Princess and Valkyrie. She mowed down the enemies in her path and cleared the way for others. She was backed by Bete and Riveria of the Loki Familia and managed to make it to the middle of the complex where the Adventurers split off into groups to clear out the building.

Back with Bell and Kasdeja, the two ceased their spell fight and had started to once more clash blades. The fallen angel had reconstructed his blade and had reinforced it to be able to take the hits from Bell's daggers. Kasdeja fought the hardest he ever had as his life literally depended on it. He was tired though, using all the energy attacks had put a giant strain on his reserves, rendering him weaker. He was just barely managing to block Bell's attacks.

The fight dragged on and Bell eventually landed a strike, marking the end for Kasdeja as he could no longer defend himself. Bell slashed and stabbed Kasdeja multiple times and before the final strike, Kasdeja spoke.

"A question before you kill me, what do you call yourself, God?"

"Cranel, God of Ruin."

"A good name…"

Bell brought the dagger down and Kasdeja ceased to exist as he burst into dark energy which was absorbed by the magic stones, empowering Bell. He signalled for Lili and Minos, they jumped out the windows and met back up at the church.

"Bell-sama, what went on in that room?! I thought you were the only one who retained his divine powers, how did Soma fight with you for so long?"

"Another time Lili, for now I need to rest, the fight with Soma took a good amount of my energy."

"Yes, Bell-sama."

Bell slept and rested after the long battle, briefly uncaring of the dangers that awaited him in the future, only satisfied that he had avenged one of his comrades.

* * *

A/N: There you have it, the third chapter, hope you like it, be sure to follow, favourite, check out my other stories, poll and review. Looks like I can't really rely on the Anime for ideas anymore and will need to use my own brain since it will likely end on a cliffhanger or just end it with Bell escaping the dungeon. This is why the chapter will be delayed, because I have to think. Anyway, there might be more chapters since I'm not following the Anime anymore.


	4. Chapter 4: Fallen Angels

A/N: This chapter is quite brutal so be warned if you have a faint heart. Another thing, I now know much more thanks to the Wiki and LN but I don't agree with it on a lot of things such as floor bosses being on the 37th and 49th floor, what is with these random numbers? As such I have decided that a floor boss will be before every safezone which is every 18 floors.

In other news, this is officially the second most followed and favourited story for Danmachi and the most followed and favourited story for me. Also, Episode 13 was amazing, we got see see Attack on Dungeon and Bell was so badass! However, that brought me down into a state of minor depression, delaying the story further since the Anime was over and I could not hope to match that scene in the slightest. I mean seriously, what am I supposed to do?

Special thanks to OoOXylionOoO for allowing me access to the Danmachi Light Novel. While this was partly the reason why it was delayed I now know much more about the world and will try not to forget it while writing. Note that I've only read volume one so other than that I'm not sure what else is in the other volumes.

* * *

The lowest floor accessible in the dungeon currently was floor 58, cleared by the Loki Familia. Based on the patterns, the dungeon should have five safe zones, on floors 18, 36, 54, 72 and 90, with 100 being the lowest floor. A few months had passed since the destruction of the Soma Familia and the city had returned to its peaceful state, although the annihilation of an entire Familia had urged the Gods to tighten their security measures and heighten the strictness of the discipline of their children.

Bell decided to keep a low profile in the months after the raid in order to allow the rumors to die down a little. Some gossip about him was good to strike fear into his enemies but too much would ruin his ability to strike strong targets who would underestimate him. When Bell heard no more word of his exploits in the tavern, he decided to call upon Minos and Lili who had been training to finally come out of hiding.

The group had gone their separate ways after the attack and trained on their own, Minos headed into the deeper regions of the dungeon where he defeated foes numerous floors tougher than him by utilizing what Bell had taught him. Lili helped out as a barmaid at a local tavern and headed into the dungeon on her days off.

Bell spent most of his time in the dungeon, scavenging goods off fallen Adventurers. He maintained a low profile and only fought when necessary, collecting magic stones whenever he could. When he wasn't in the dungeon, Bell was scouting Familias, looking for a weak one to attack on his own.

He also worked on his project, creating armor and a weapon for Minos. He had managed to accumulate a considerable amount of magic stones and used them to create a massive suit of armor and a giant axe for the Minotaur. He had also acquired the materials needed to imbue the magic stones with properties similar to his and allowed the equipment to absorb them.

Within two months, Bell found a suitable target, the Nyx Familia. Nyx was the Goddess of Night and wore mostly dark clothing with a translucent black shawl. The home of this Familia was a decrepit large building where its ten members stayed together with their God. Bell decided to attack in the dead of night, when they were asleep. His years as a thief had taught him all he needed about stealth to enter without being noticed.

He infiltrated the home by going through an unlocked window into the room of two of the Adventurers on the second floor. Bell plunged his dagger into their hearts, between the ribs, ending their lives immediately. He opened the door silently and walked down the hallway. Unfortunately for him, this was when one of the new security measures Familias had begun to put into place activated.

A nocturnal bird that had been trained to cry out at the sight of intruders had been placed in the middle of the middle of the hallway and had spotted him. It let out a deafening cry that woke all inhabitants of the building who immediately came at him with their weapons drawn. There were three women and five men. They were all Level one and as such, were easily defeated by Bell.

Although it wasn't to say they didn't put up a fight, they tried their very best to take him down, utilizing every advantage they could, to no avail. Whatever strategies they came up with, Bell simply destroyed through sheer brute force. With each fallen comrade, they lost more and more morale, powerless before the monster that had attacked them. WIth the last Adventurer eliminated, Bell kicked open the door of Nyx's room to find her awaiting him.

"Why have you come here?"

"To kill you."

"Kill a God? You must be joking my dear boy…"

"No, to kill a fallen angel."

Nyx's face tensed at the mention of those words.

"Just who are you boy…"

"Cranel, God of Ruin, remember that name, for it is the name of the one who shall end you!"

"So… We missed one during the purge… Well, I'll just have to fix that!"

Dark wings sprouted out of her back as her true form was revealed.

"I am Saraknyal, you would do well to remember this when you join the others!"

The fallen angel drew its weapon out of a dark portal and got into stance. It was a simple black broadsword with parallel blood red lines along the blade. Saraknyal brought the sword down on the seemingly ill equipped Bell, only to reel back in pain as one of his hands was sliced off by a glowing purple dagger, causing the sword to fall.

The fallen angel screamed in pain as its hand was lost, gripping its wrist and using magic to stop the bleeding. Bell saw the opening and used the opportunity to decapitate his opponent. He rushed forward with his blades in a cross pattern, intending to slice off Saraknyal's head, only to stop short when the enemy took to the air and fled to the top of the room.

Sadly for the fallen angel, the ceiling was not very high and she was just barely out of Bell's reach. This barely troubled him, he simply jumped up and pulled the winged opponent to the ground where he decided to torture it out of boredom. Bell flipped her and stepped on her back, the magic stones of his armor burning her flesh. He began by first removing her wings, pulling them off one by one slowly and painfully.

"I expected more of a challenge from a supposed God killer but I guess you had very few minions to begin with so you couldn't possibly had regained much of your strength."

The two bloodied black feathery wings laid at the side of the room as Bell moved on and shaved her bald, forcing the fallen angel to eat her own hair.

"Please… Just finish me…"

"Now why would I do that? I need to make sure your kind suffers tenfold the amount my comrades did when you killed them!"

Bell crushed her other hand in rage as he recalled the brutal battle. The fallen angel cried out in pain and he continued to torment her. He stabs his twin daggers into her thighs, twisting them to inflict more pain.

"I'm rather curious, what decides which God you imitate? Do you imitate the one you kill?"

"We were assigned them at random by our leader based on our personalities and traits."

"Azazel right?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"Not really."

"Then lets continue."

Unfortunately for Bell, time for messing around was up. The general populace had taken notice of the screams and sent a group to investigate. He quickly killed her off when he felt their presence at the door and absorbed her dark energy. With the destruction of the Familia complete, Bell left for his church home to rest.

'That was too easy, Soma was only difficult because he had such a large Familia. At this kind of difficulty I can easily destroy them on my own, the issue is that there are Gods from every religion present. That seems to be impossible as the Fallen Angels do not have such high numbers. I likely got lucky in finding an actual fallen angel in Nyx, majority of the weak Familias should have faux vessels as Gods which supply power to the fallen angels. Though taking them out would be a good thing it is ultimately not going to make much of a difference.'

* * *

As Bell woke up the next day, two people walked through the entrance of the church.

"Master, I have returned."

"Bell-sama!"

"Welcome back guys, Minos, come, I have created a set of gear for you."

"Thank you, Master."

Minos got into his new armor and tested out his new axe. It sliced through the rocks he cut like butter. After some time, the trio gathered together for their meal and discussed their future plans.

"So what will we be doing now, Bell-sama?"

"For now I want you to come over and show me the mark."

Lili did as instructed and Bell touched the horizontal lightning bolt. It glowed red and started steaming, slowly cooling down until it returned to its original form.

"There, welcome to Level Two Lili."

"Thank you Bell-sama!"

"Now back to more important matters, Lili, I need you to help me investigate the Zeus Familia."

"Yes, Bell-sama."

"Minos, you and me will go out hunting for crows."

"I understand Master. It will be a good test of my skills."

"We leave after breakfast so for now let us enjoy a hearty meal."

Lili headed off to the Guild to gather information while Bell and Minos headed into the dungeon. He had gotten Minos to slaughter weak Adventurers while leaving a survivor which he would then follow back to the Familia's base. After marking it on his map, Bell would return to the dungeon and continue the process

By the end of the day, there had been a largely reduced number of people entering the dungeon due to the appearance of a supposed miniboss. Most of the players that were allowed to escape had spread word of Minos and those who knew of an enraged Minotaur previously did not dare enter the dungeon.

Only a few arrogant ones came in and were promptly cut down by Minos. Of course that is not to say they were all weaklings, Minos hid whenever a stronger party passed by as his strength was nowhere near Bell's and could only handle a group of Level twos at most. Bell had gone to the Guild in the evening and retrieved a list of Familias.

That night, Minos and Bell headed out separately and took down some weak Familias. Using the emblems located in the bases, Bell compared it with the list he had gotten from the Guild and crossed out those he had destroyed. Unfortunately, none of the ones he and Minos destroyed were real fallen angels, only faux vessels.

'At least this will put some fear into the rest, destroying enough of their 'farms' will eventually get some of them to confront me.'

Looking at his list, Bell noted how little progress he had made in terms of wiping them out but it was expected considering how many Gods people believed in through all the religions and races that existed prior to the attacks.

'I need to open the gates eventually to speed things up, the lowest floor now is 58 and I doubt the fallen angels actually allowed access to the hundredth so I need to smash my way through the ninety-ninth somehow... There's also the fact that some fallen angels have taken to hiding in other areas to gather energy, monopolizing entire cities and favouring quantity over quality.'

While Orario was the only city with a dungeon which was the main reason for the quantity of Adventures present, there were also other Adventurers that hunted monsters that threatened villages and other settlements. Though only a few could reach Level three, none reached above that. The most prominent group at the moment was the Egyptian God of Craftsmen Ptah's Familia which supplied weapons to anyone who was willing to pay and had amassed a large following.

That night, Minos remembered an important piece of information that he had forgotten to mention earlier and decided to bring up the topic during breakfast the next day. They were having bacon and eggs with some special sauce that Lili managed to get, Minos got an extra large portion and extras were made.

"Master, since the matter of the Soma Familia has been settled, I think it is time we discuss the one who turned me into the state you found me in."

"Yes, it is."

"I know not his name but he was an extremely muscular man, capable of crushing Minotaur skulls with only his hands. He is a Boaz who is over two meters tall and wears black and red armor."

"Wait! I know who that is!"

"Who Lili?"

"That is likely King…"

"King?"

"Ottar, he is the head of the Freya Familia and currently the only Level Seven in all of Orario!"

"What would a man like that want with a Minotaur? Do you have any thoughts on this Master?"

"Hmm…"

Bell closed his eyes and crossed his arms in deep thought for a moment.

"The only reason I could think of as to why he would purposely enrage a Minotaur is because of an order from Freya. Through my information gathering, Freya was said to be one of the most fickle Goddesses, often doing things based on a whim for the sake of her latest toy and I seem to be her new target."

"Ottar is said to be loyal to a fault, one time he tore a man's tongue out for insulting Freya and made him pledge never to do it again before cracking both of his legs."

"That is some scary hell of a monster…"

"Actually, on a more lighter topic, when are we going to move out of here? This dusty old run down church is not where someone as powerful as you should be staying Bell-sama!"

"Well, we are a bit short on money you see…"

"Don't give me that Bell-sama, I know you need them for your weapons and armor but you've probably wasted about hundred of thousands of Valis already!"

"Fine fine, I have some spare left over. We'll use those to get a new base."

"Master, I think it would be most prudent to create our emblem as well, lest a petty thief tries to break in and we have to end him."

"Ugh you are all so demanding, who is supposed to be the leader of this Familia again?! Right I've decided! I'm going to beat the crap out of Goliath over and over again until we have enough to last a lifetime! Then I'm going to the safezone for some food, I heard Mia Grand had her friend set up shop down there."

"Bell-sama please think more clearly about this!"

"I have thought it through very carefully, by defeating the boss, the huge magic stone will easily be enough to exchange for inordinate amounts of Valis."

"Master, allow me to assist you in carrying the spoils back."

Bell nodded and ran off towards the dungeon.

"Bell-sama! Wait for me!"

* * *

Outside the Hostess of Fertility, a party of five Adventurers had assembled and prepared to enter the dungeon with the goal of tackling floor 17. They had come from many different Familias and met one drunk night at the bar. The group comprised of a supporter named Mika, a mage named Stiyl, an archer called Tigrev and two swordsmen, Yuuji and Rin.

"Yo, is everyone ready to go? Make you we have enough supplies to last a few days incase we get trapped!"

"Yup we're all set Yuujin!"

"Mika, I said to call me Yuuji…"

"Now now captain, its pretty cute don't you think?"

"No one asked you Rin."

"We should get going, its going to take awhile to reach floor 17."

"Stiyl's right, we need to head out. If any of you are scared in there don't worry, I, the great Tigrev-sama will protect you!"

"As if you could do that with a just a bow Tigrev."

"Enough, we're moving out guys!"

"Yes captain!"

The five Adventurers headed down to the lower levels and began their adventure. Although, Adventurers are not supposed to go on an adventure in the lower levels… They fought their way down onto the lower levels, beating off Hellhounds and Almirages as they advanced. Soon enough they encountered Minotaurs and Lygerfangs as they reached floor 17. The group had a little trouble with the Lygerfangs but managed nonetheless. As they approached the boss room, they heard the sound of the Monster Rex reviving.

"What do you know? It's reviving just in time for us to kick its ass!"

They party walked into the boss room to see a lone white haired boy, unarmed and without armor, standing in front of the ice as it broke and the Goliath begun to break free. Off to the side they saw a giant backpack next to an unarmed MInotaur.

"Oi! Are you crazy kid? Get the hell out of there!"

"Could it be? The Minotaur stole this guys supplies and forced him to fight the boss?!"

"You guys! Get into formation! We're taking this big guy down!"

The party got into formation around him and raised their weapons. Stiyl started chanting his strongest fire spell and Tigrev nocked his bow. The two swordsmen got into stance and Mika tried talking to the white haired boy. Just as the Goliath fully emerged, Bell spoke.

"You're in the way…"

In the blink of an eye, he jumped up above the Goliath and his cloaked dagger revealed itself, a purple shine blinding the Adventurers who watched him. Just as he was about to land, Bell maneuvered himself and stabbed both daggers into the head of the beast, twisting and pulling them out before dashing to its face and piercing its eyes through the protective layer. The Goliath cried out in pain as it lost sight of the world.

Without any eyes to see, the Monster Rex used its sense of smell to determine the location of its attacker and attacked there. Seeing it as an advantage, Bell dropped off its face and latched onto its chest with his daggers. The giant roared and sent its fist flying towards him. Just as it was about to hit, he jumped off and without time to adjust, the Goliath smashed itself in the chest with enough force to crush buildings.

The boss fell back and landed on its back, vulnerable. Bell climbed onto the monster's chest where the fist had smashed and cut an opening. With the ribs broken, he needed only to cut his way to the heart. The group of five watched on as the strange boy dived into the opening and blood spurted out as he sliced the interior of the Goliath, kicking out important organs and other bloody things to reduce the boss' health while he searched for the magic stone core.

Goliath was roaring in pain as it was defiled and bled from the inside out. More holes were created with each part of his body knocked out. Unable to do anything, its cries soon stopped with one final howl as its arms went limp and it burst into dark energy which was absorbed by Bell's magic stones. Paralyzed with fear, the Adventurers looked at the blood covered form of the white haired boy. He turned his head to look at them, and smiled.

The group ran off in terror of this monster, afraid of its massive strength that allowed it to take down the boss in mere minutes. They had been used to such things through their own journeys but the way Goliath was tormented up till its final moments was sickening. Mika threw up at the entrance as she remembered all the gore of the scene.

That day, every inn in town spread the story of an Adventurer which took down Goliath without any effort and rumors of the white haired boy resurfaced once more. People stalked the dungeon entrance to see the man for themselves, only to be shocked when they saw a cart of giant magic stones being hauled up from the lower ends of the dungeon by a Minotaur.

Said Minotaur also had two people walking beside him, a seemingly poorly equipped white haired boy and a supporter who were both carrying magic stones as well. It was early in the evening and the guards were changing shifts, a group of people wanting to make a quick buck tried to extort them outside the dungeon, blocking their path.

"Hey kid, those are some nice magic stones you got there, how about sharing some with me?"

"No."

"We both know you couldn't have legally earned these, I bet you stole them, so hand them over and I'll think about whether or not to tell the authorities about this."

"Get out of my way mortal…"

"Mortal? Who do you think you are, some kind of God? Gods are forbidden from entering the dungeon idiot!"

The others in the group laughed at the joke.

"I will say it once more, move."

"And what if we don't huh? You think you scare us? What do you, some guy who only first entered the dungeon less than half a year ago, think you have against us, seasoned Adventurers of the Enyo Familiar?"

"Yea, you tell him boss!"

"I bet you'll cry once I cut you with my blade, let's put that to the test!"

The man drew his sword, a Kiliji, and attempted to slice Bell's arm. In the blink of an eye, the white haired boy disappeared and reappeared behind the man, poking a finger into his neck.

"**Finger of Death…"**

The man suddenly swelled and exploded into a mess of blood and guts. Bell walked forwards with Minos and Lili close behind him. The comrades of the now deceased leader ran off in fright at how brutally their leader had been disposed of. The trio made their way to the Guild while Lili casted a spell to make them more presentable.

The bankers were shocked when they saw the quantity of magic stones brought to them and had to use their special scale to measure the amount to pay out. The total price due was about one and a half million Valis. Bell walked away from the bank a happy man and got Minos and Lili to go back to the hidden room in the church to pack up their things.

Bell himself headed to the housing office and bought a building to serve as his new base with the money he just earned. It was a large manor in a secluded part of the city where no one usually travelled to. The building came with a forge set up by the previous owner and had a total of twenty rooms, most of which would be used for storage for Bell since he would not be using them for housing people.

With his work done, Bell went to help Lili and Minos carry the items over. Once everything was done, they got to work cleaning it up while Bell worked on creating an emblem to hang on top of the main entrance. Using molten Minotaur horns, he created a red lightning bolt which he fitted horizontally into a slot he made on a silver shield. As a final touch, he sprinkled magic stone powder onto it which made it shine.

He hung it above the doorway and looked proudly at his creation. Seeing that he had some extra time left, Bell went to test out the new forge and created a magic stone arm mounted crossbow for Lili and a pouch of magic stone bolts. He met up with Lili at dinner, he had brought some more food from Mia at the Hostess of Fertility, making sure to deliver the message her friend from floor eighteen had asked him to deliver to her.

"So Lili, what have you found out about the Zeus Familia?"

"I barely got any information but based on what little I could gather, the Familia is largely defunct with all of its members dead, leaving only the God Zeus, though his whereabouts are currently unknown."

"I see. What could have killed them I wonder, they were said to be the strongest Familia…"

"I don't know Bell-sama, but let us hope we do not have the opportunity to find out first hand."

"I'm sure we could handle it Lili, speaking of which, here is a present."

Bell pulled out the crossbow with its pouch of bolts and handed it to Lili.

"Thank you Bell-sama, I was wondering when I would get something."

"Huh?"

"I mean look, you gave Minos a full set of armor and that huge axe."

"Well, you are mainly ranged so I saw fit to give Minos armor first and I thought that I might as well give him a weapon while I was at it."

"Don't worry, you've done more than enough for me, I'm just happy to be here."

"Lili…"

"Erm excuse me Master, what exactly is the plan now? We've acquired a new base and good living quarters."

"Hmm, for now I think we should continue our usual operations while we gather information. It is not safe to make a move now."

"Bell-sama, with all due respect, I am itching to kill some fallen angels, why don't you ever let me join you and Minos on your attacks? Even if I didn't have a magic stone weapon until now, I could have helped you take down some of their minions!"

"Alright Lili, I'll let you join us, but remember that safety is the number one priority, losing you would mean losing half of my army."

"Thank you Bell-sama."

"Tomorrow will mainly be for raising our stats so be sure to train well, I will be fighting on the lower floors."

"Yes Master."

"Understood Bell-sama."

They headed to the dungeon the next day with their provisions and trained for mostly the entire day. While Minos and Lili trained on around floor twenty, Bell headed deeper to train at floor thirty-five, he had yet to defeat this boss but could safely handle to monsters before it. The Monster Rex's name was Elder Dragon, a grown up version of the Infant Dragon from floor eleven. The beast was a staggering twenty metres tall and its skin temperature was over three hundred degrees.

He was feeling confident and decided to try and take on the boss. Bell uncloaked his equipment and entered the boss room. He spun his daggers as he waited for the boss to awake, jets of fire emerging from the dragon's nostrils with each snore. It soon felt the presence of an intruder and awoke, roaring and blowing fire as it rose.

The large red dragon looked at the one who had foolishly dared to challenge him and unleashed a torrent of flames, engulfing the boy in fire so hot that it would melt bone. As the flames subsided, they revealed Bell unharmed.

"Keh, and here I thought you would be a challenge, I barely felt that, though thanks for the warm up."

Bell dashed forward and sliced a toe of the dragon off, it roared in rage as it started to bleed. The great beast sent forward a jet of fire at Bell in retaliation. The flames felt strange but by the time he had noticed what was wrong, it was already too late. The fire had been a distraction and was not as hot as the previous attack. The dragon had used the wall of flames to conceal his attack, his arm shot out and smashed the white haired boy to the side. Bell got up from where he fell but noticed there was a slight cut on an unprotected part of his face.

'I need to be more careful, this thing is more cunning than I thought it would be.'

Using the opportunity he had created, the Elder Dragon used the time to change tactics. With a loud roar, the skin of the dragon began to change from red to white. The fire that shot out of its mouth began to disappear and was replaced by a torrent of air. The scaly skin of the dragon visibly changed to a smooth texture.

"Right, I forgot you could transform. I'm guessing you must be a wind dragon now aren't you?"

The beast responded with a blast of air which threw Bell off his feet.

'Damn, I can't block the wind with my current set up, I'm at a disadvantage here.'

The jet of air soon subsided and the dragon moved in to attempt to crush the fallen attacker. As its foot came down, it suddenly recoiled in pain as dagger stabbed it. Bell had managed to raise his dagger in time to damage the beast. A mighty roar signaled the dragon was angry. Barely avoiding the initial torrent of air, Bell circled around the reptile and was able to avoid the air blast while getting close to the dragon.

With a stab of his dagger, the dragon cried in pain and took to the air, its soft underbelly had been injured by the attack. It flapped its wings with great strength, creating multiple cyclones and fast moving air that slashed at Bell's armor like blades. The dragon then changed its form again to red and blew fire at the cyclones, filling them with fire as they spun towards Bell. The flaming cyclones formed a wall of defense as they approached Bell, slowly advancing towards him with no openings to avoid them. Out of options, he used his spell in an attempt to escape.

**"Finger of Death!"**

The red bolt of electricity travelled through the cyclones and hit the dragon in the chest, the shock causing it to lose concentration. The great beast fell to the ground and the cyclones dispersed without the dragon maintaining them, Bell charged forth and stabbed the dragon twice in the stomach again. The monster threw him off and kicked him off to the corner of the room before changing form again, its skin changing from red to blue and texture going from scaly to slimy.

The dragon shot a strange green liquid out of its mouth and it started to melt some of the rubble from the fight, a large boulder soaked in the acid was thrown at Bell who dodged it just in time. With a burst of speed, he ran across the acid soaked floor and brutally stabbed his daggers into the dragon repeatedly in an attempt to end it quickly before anything could actually harm him.

The dragon cried in pain one final time before its neck went limp and it fell to the ground, the great beast had put up a valiant fight but the Elder Dragon was no match for a serious Bell. The Monster Rex burst into dark energy that was absorbed by Bell's magic stone armor, leaving behind its magic stone core which he hauled up to the upper levels. He met up with Lili and Minos at floor nineteen before heading up to the safezone together, only to find the residents of the floor fighting against a huge Black Goliath.

* * *

A/N: Well I know what I'm going to do with the Black Goliath but I'm having major writer's block with this Fic. As such it will be awhile before the next chapter, I will mainly be working on other stories for now but will try and write this in between. Review, favourite and follow if you've enjoyed. Don't forget to check out my other stories and poll as well. Story status information can be found on my profile and you can make suggestions on my forum.


	5. Chapter 5: Black Goliath

A/N: Right, now after a long hiatus, I finally manage to pull off a fifth chapter. Thank you to anyone who bothered to wait all this time and had faith I would continue. However, there will be an important announcement at the end so please stick around.

* * *

"Bell-sama, what should we do about that?"

"Master, I feel something is strange about that monster…"

Suddenly, a whizzing noise could be heard as a beam shot out of the eyes of the Black Goliath in the direction of Bell. The ray entered Bell's eyes and he heard a familiar voice speak to him.

**"Son of Cranel, a fallen angel has foolishly wandered into the dungeon. Such an opportunity has not presented itself before and with the power they had left, the demons created me and sent me to destroy the so called God. He is the one they call Hermes and has brought with him only a single Adventurer from his Familia."**

"I see, I have a rough grasp of the situation, do you require aid?"

**"Yes, upon my appearance the humans who have settled here attacked me and I find that to be most annoying. Their puny attacks do little harm but I would appreciate if you would dispose of them while I deal with the more important target."**

"It shall be done."

Bell then turned to the others as his mind worked on how to explain the situation to them.

"Lili, Minos, that Black Goliath is our ally, one of the fallen angels has wandered into the dungeon with only a single guard. However, as soon as he spawned, our ally was assaulted by the Adventurers who made this section of the dungeon part of their home."

"So we are to assist in the removal of the weaklings Master?"

"Correct, you and Lili will support the left side of the Black Goliath while I take the right."

"Yes, Bell-sama!"

Just as they were about to split up, they heard footsteps in the distance and Bell got the other two to leave first.

"Hey! Anyone over here?"

It seemed that upon the shooting of the beam, the Adventurers had sent a small search party of five people to investigate the area where it had hit. Bell decided to use this to his advantage.

"Ya, me! Could you help me out? I'm injured from trying to fight off a strong mob in the lower levels."

"Oh sure, Kouta, could you help support him while Saki goes back to the settlement to report this?"

"Alright Asano, see you back at camp then."

"What! That's not fair! Why do I always have to do the work?!"

"Because I'm the leader of this party and you agreed to listen to what I say."

Kouta sighed and approached Bell.

"Fine… Come here kid, I'll help you."

"Thanks, I wouldn't know what to do without your help."

"Don't mention it. Although… What is a kid like you doing in the lower levels?"

"Oh, I fell down this huge chasm and ended up lost. Before I knew it, the monsters started chasing me lower and lower into the dungeon until I ended up here."

"You are quite lucky then, most guys end up dead whenever that happens."

"Guess I am, though mind telling me what's going on down there? I thought this was a safezone?"

"It is, though that huge thing just emerged from the crystals in the ceiling and started to attack us. Most of the Adventurers are trying to fight it off right now but it is pretty tough and regenerates whatever we throw at it."

"So it's unkillable?"

"Seems like it, our guys are going to try and cast some high level spells on it all at once if this attempt fails."

A large chain of explosions could be heard in the distance.

"Damn, guess it didn't work, what the hell is that thing made of?"

"Do you want me to help?"

"It would be most appreciated, although I doubt you could do much. Although, you do seem kinda familiar, like I'd heard of you somewhere before… Can't put my finger on it…"

"Really? Must be your imagination, I've only been here for about a month or so."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

The rest of the trip to the camp was rather quiet as the fight raged on in the distance and the Adventurers bought time for their spellcasters to prepare their spells. As they arrived at the camp, Bell was escorted into a tent and some supplies were given to treat the minor injuries he had.

"Hey so what's your name anyway?"

"Bell Cranel…"

"Wait, that name… You're the guy who took down Soma!"

"I guess my reputation precedes me, even when I escaped, they still found out I dealt with him."

"It was obviously you, only you and your unknown Familia could possibly have gotten close to Soma before the rest of us rushed in."

"I guess…"

"So is it true you tamed a Minotaur?"

"Yup, I even got a surprise for you…"

"Huh?"

"Minos is fighting out there right now, killing Adventurers, just like I'm about to do…"

"Wait no!"

The man's head soon met the floor and two others rushed in to investigate, only to meet a similar fate to their comrade. Bell emerged from the tent spinning his twin daggers as his armor decloaked and he began his massacre, taking down any Adventurers healing or preparing supplies in the camp.

* * *

At the front lines, the Adventurers fought on as the Black Goliath pounded them while making his way to his goal. Just as they had managed to get a foothold on one side, a Minotaur in glowing purple full plate armor charged them with a giant axe in hand. Majority of them looked to the new threat and did not notice when a number of their allies were picked off by a hidden sniper atop a tree wielding a similarly glowing purple crossbow.

"Retreat!"

"But we need to distract the monster while the magic casters prepare their spell!"

"You aren't useful if you're dead so lets g-"

"Arg!"

A scream coming from the direction of the village caught the attention of the leader, Voles, he looked back to see a body get kicked up into the air by a speeding purple armored figure which raced across the rear of the attack force and took down the retreating Adventurers. In panic, he looked up to the mountain side where the magic casters where hidden, unintentionally giving away their location to Bell.

The attacker immediately jumped away from the fleeing enemies and leapt up to the ledge where they were hidden, quickly dispatching them as they frantically released their spells early in an attempt to protect their lives. The futile attempt was pointless as Bell's armor protected him from the brunt of the spells as he cut them down.

Once the main threat had been taken care of, Bell dived off the ledge and into the fray once more where, like a deadly precise dance of death, he spun and slashed with his twin daggers, taking down countless of the remaining Adventurers. All of those who stood before him had their weapons easily deflected and as they struggled to get back into stance, Bell would take the opportunity and strike while they were vulnerable.

Voles looked at the Black Goliath and then back at Bell, he was trapped in a pincer attack by the enemy and in panic had caused his trump card, the magic casters, to be eliminated. He had been in this situation countless times with monsters but he always escaped with the help of either tricks or stealth. He highly doubted either would work with the towering height of the Black Goliath and the intelligence of the enemy's supposed leader, the white haired attacker at the rear.

Voles got some of the remaining survivors to cover him while he thought of a plan to try and escape the current crisis. He closed his eyes in deep thought and the fight raged on as he tried to come up with a way to make it out of here. The group of Adventurers slowly were thinned out until only a fraction of his original forces remained. Voles finally opened his eyes as he came up with a plan, a gamble, which if worked, would get at least one enemy impaired.

"Everyone disperse to the forest, Kanata and Yuma, you're with me!"

The Adventurers ran off into the woodworks and Bell regrouped with the others.

"Lili, I want you to go up to that ledge and act as our eyes in the sky, Goliath, you can handle the fallen angel while me and Minos will split up and take either side of the woods."

"Yes Master."

"Yes Bell-sama."

"Very well, son of Cranel…"

The group split up and focused on their tasks. Bell and Minos hunted down the survivors while Lili picked off anyone which was foolish enough to go out into the open. The Black Goliath moved towards the middle of the floor as it was the last area where he had sensed the fallen angel. Bell soon caught sight of the man he had identified as the leader and pinned him to a tree with a thrown dagger. Bell closed the distance between them and knocked the sword out of Vole's hand before putting the second dagger to his throat.

"Any last words?"

"Mind telling me how hot Hell is once you get there?"

"Huh?"

Without even enough time to flinch, a large explosion had occurred at Bell's feet which sent him flying back and into a large pit which magically appeared. He jammed his dagger into the wall to slow his descent and managed to stop just above the pit of lava at the very bottom. With great strength, he kicked himself off the walls continuously and wall jumped up to the top. Spotting the tree where the man was pinned, he saw a tattered piece of cloth.

'Damn, he got away.'

Bell pulled his dagger out, allowing the cloth to fall to the ground. Twirling his daggers to clean them of blood and dirt, Bell sheathed his blades. He looked around and spotted Minos fending off a group of four Adventurers. Lili was atop a vantage point and shot at those who were visible within her line of sight with her magic stone crossbow bolts.

The Black Goliath had long since arrived at its destination and was currently launching magic blasts from its mouth in an attempt to flush out the fallen angel. Trees were uprooted and the ground was cratered in multiple locations as Hermes leapt from tree to tree to avoid the blasts. Seeing that even he would have a hard time, the Black Goliath roared upwards, sending a signal to all of the dungeon. Minotaurs and other monsters emerged from the dungeon walls, freshly birthed to aid in the fallen angel's capture.

The anti-Adventurer army charged, pushing forward and killing any who stood in their way, slowly cornering the Adventurers at the collapsed cave. Desperate to escape, a number of the survivors hurried to clear the blocked exit instead of focusing on the enemy, weakening their defense. Slowly but surely, the monsters gained ground.

Lili had shifted to another vantage point during the fight and Bell and Minos rejoined one another at one of the Black Goliath's created clearings. Seeing as the fight had pretty much already been decided, the two of them moved to focus on locating the fallen angel. Soon, the fighting settled as the remaining Adventurers were either dead or in hiding. Even Voles had been felled by a minor monster while taking on two Minotaurs.

With the area quiet, Hermes saw that he had indeed been cornered and stepped out into the open with his aide surprisingly still alive. The Black Goliath stopped its rampage and watched. Lili observed the scene from afar for any tricks while Bell stepped ahead, twirling his twin daggers and smirking. He attempted to stride forward but was stopped by a shout from Asfi.

"Don't come any closer, I will protect Hermes-sama with my life!"

"Keh, I had hoped that being one of the more powerful Adventurers, you would realize it but I guess I was wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"That Hermes is a fake! The real Hermes died long ago, he is nothing but a fallen angel!"

"A fallen angel? No! You are trying to deceive me with your lies!"

"I hardly see a reason to, I was merely trying to see if you were willing to listen to reason but the result is obvious."

"Enough talk, now we fight!"

"Very well then!"

Bell moved first, dashing ahead, intent on getting first blood. Asfi foresaw this and cast a spell to fly into the air.

"I doubt you can hit me up here!"

Confident in her safety, she drew her needles and shot her enchanted projectiles at Bell. Just as she was about to let go of the first needle, she felt something flying towards her but could not dodge in time, the bolt piercing her side Her throw fell short and her grip loosened, the needles falling and embedding themselves into the soil. Barely in the air, she looked towards the direction of the attack and saw a purple glint.

"Of course… How could I forget about the sniper…"

At that, Asfi fell, onto the ground as the spell keeping her afloat faded.

"Wow, you didn't even put up a fight… Tell you what, out of pity, I'll let you see the truth behind Hermes before I end you."

Bell then turned to the person in question and glared.

"So? You gonna reveal your true form or what?"

"Keh, I guess this carade has gone on for long enough…"

In a cloud of black smoke, the body of Hermes sprouted dark wings and grew claws.

"I Zavebe shall be your opponent!"

"Nah, I don't feel like it, I'll just watch you fight the Goliath with her."

"Fine, I'll deal with you later Son of Cranel!"

And so Zavebe took off, ready to fight the colossal titan. Asfi, reeling from the injury, was shocked at what Hermes had transformed into. However, she wasn't the only one, some of the surviving Adventurer's curiosity got the better of them and they went to see what was essentially the final battle. As the battle raged on above them, Bell turned to the wounded Asfi and smiled.

"See? I wasn't lying, though I doubt you can be saved at your level of devotion so just wait, I'll finish you off after this."

She could only grunt in frustration at being helpless. That helplessness however, led her to an interesting thought.

'If I'm going to die, I'd rather die knowing who exactly this man is…'

"Who are you?"

"Me? Just Bell Cranel."

"Nonsense, there's obviously more to you than that!"

"Fine, I guess there's no harm in telling you anyway. I'm Bell Cranel, grandson of Zeus and the God of Ruin, well, the God of anything really, I'm the last true God as far as I know…"

"True God?"

"Indeed, ages past, there was a war between the Gods and fallen angels. Obviously from my previous statement, the Gods lost. That is not to say the fallen angels were unscathed of course, no no, they were hurt badly and so devised this system of Familia to draw power from the humans and gaining loyal servants."

"What?! So we're all just pawns for them?"

"Pretty much."

"No… There must be a way!"

"There is, but as I've said before, your devotion to your fallen angel is too strong, I cannot undo his markings as you are."

"But what about now?! If I know the truth, doesn't that change anything?!"

"I wish it would, but as long as you were happy with him for more than half your time, there is no way to save you, the only solution, is death."

"It can't be…"

"I'm afraid it is. Also, you can all come out from hiding, I won't hurt you while Zavebe is still alive."

Shocked at having been discovered and afraid of the consequences of not obeying, those watching in silence all stepped forward.

"I assume all of your heard my story?"

"Yeah, but I'm not believing jack all, my God ain't one of those fallen angels, you're just a madman!"

"Heh, I guess desperation does lead people to make up lies in their head. Well, not that it matters…"

Surprising even Bell, a green cloaked elf approached him.

"Oh?"

"So it's true, that you're the one that all the people have been talking about?"

"You mean in the bar? Indeed, those were me, though I don't doubt most of them have been over exaggerated. More importantly, what are you doing here Ryuu?"

"I used to be an Adventurer, so when Hermes called for me to help, I was obligated to."

"I see. Anything else you wish to ask?"

"I killed a Familia once, their God didn't retaliate or turn into one of those fallen angels, why?"

"You most likely attacked a Faux Vessel, they are false Gods created by the fallen angels to gather power."

"I see…"

"It looks like the fight is concluding."

"What? No way!"

A wingless battered and bruised Zavebe fell to the ground next to them.

"Guess that's done, it's time for all of you to die, can't have witnesses after all…"

"Please no! I have a family to feed!"

"Sad, but some sacrifices must be made to recreate the world anew, purged of fallen angels."

And so Bell killed most of them swiftly, leaving the most interesting ones for last.

"So it's down to you and Asfi, huh Ryuu?"

"Just end it, I don't want to waste anymore time."

"Hmph, unfortunately for you, I want to try one more thing before I do."

Drawing one of his daggers and twirling it for coolness, Bell walked over to the unconscious form of Zavebe and stabbed at the fallen angel's heart before twisting the short blade. Pained into consciousness, the fallen angel screamed as it was vanquished from the world, its power absorbed by Bell. Looking somewhat satisfied, he walked back over to Asfi and ripped her cloak off before stripping her top to reveal her bare back.

"What are you doing!?"

She could only shout in defiance as she no longer had any strength to resist.

"Relax, I'm just gonna try something…"

Mounting her, Bell focused his power into one of his fingertips and traced the runes on her back swiftly, quickly burning it off, the pain causing her to black out

"Her runes…"

"I gain power from those I've slain, it seems Zavebe was all I needed to be able to rescue those I couldn't before."

"Then there was no need to kill all those people!"

"There was, I evaluated each one before I killed them, they all carried heavy sins to get their strength. The only ones who bore little to no unjustified sins were you two, hence why I refrained from killing you two."

"So, you freed her, but what about me? I have no runes, I left them behind long ago."

"True, so I will now give you a choice, join me, or go free and return to your usual life as a waitress with a mental lock on you to never speak of what you have learnt."

Ryuu was silent, unsure of how to answer.

"Likewise, I will extend the same offer to Asfi once she awake. Me and the rest of my group will be resting, you and her can come to me with your answers tomorrow at the exit."

At that, Bell left the both of them and headed to what was left of the settlement to rest. The group sat around the fire and chatted about today's exploits. It seemed that Bell, with his quick speed and dual weapons, got the highest kill count, with Lili and her sniping at second place. The topic then shifted to Asfi and Ryuu.

"So do you think the two of them will accept Bell-sama?"

"Indeed Master, I find it hard to believe the two would so easily switch sides after finding out that everything they were taught was a lie."

"Well, we'll find out in the morning. What about you Goliath?"

**"I care little about the result, I only wish I could have gotten a stronger opponent, he barely managed to wound me beyond dislocating my right arm slightly."**

"I see, I guess it might've been quite disappointing."

**"Worry not, I'm sure a stronger enemy will present itself if I follow you, Son of Cranel."**

"I guess we'll find out…"

The group soon turned in and morning came. Ryuu and Asfi walked through the arch of the camp to meet a smug Bell. An hour later, the enlarged group stood at the blocked entrance, both Asfi and Ryuu sporting red horizontal lightning bolts on their upper arms. The Black Goliath fired off a magic blast from its mouth to clear the way and the group headed back to the surface to prepare for the countless trials awaiting them ahead.

* * *

A/N: And that's the end. As some of you have predicted, I am ending the story here, I simply am unable to think of any more content. So with a heavy heart, I will end it here until a second season for Danmachi is released. I might release a little bonus here and there for the OVA and Sword Owatoria but until then, the story will end here, thank you for all your support!

As always, review, favourite and follow if you've enjoyed. Don't forget to check out my other stories, community and poll as well. Story status information can be found on my profile and you can make suggestions on my forum.


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